Early mobilization during intensive care admission and perceived quality of life in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic – A prospective cohort study and propensity score matching

Med Intensiva (Engl Ed). 2025 Oct 27:502341. doi: 10.1016/j.medine.2025.502341. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect of early physiotherapy (ePHYS) on patients’ functional quality of life one year after discharge.

DESIGN: Prospective observational study.

SETTINGS: Adult polyvalent ICU.

PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS: Patients with SARS-CoV2 pneumonia requiring invasive mechanical ventilation between March 2020 and July 2022.

INTERVENTION: Early physiotherapy.

MAIN VARIABLES OF INTEREST: Quality of life measured by CFS, Barthel and SF36 on ICU admission, at hospital discharge and one year after hospital discharge.

RESULTS: Ninety-nine patients included. In the raw data analysis we observed statistically significant differences in SAPS-3 (Mdn_No-ePHYS = 59 [53.5-64.5]; Mdn_Yes-ePHYS = 53 [47-58]; P = .001). After propensity score, we did not observe statistically significant differences except for two SF-36 items: social activities (Mdn_No-ePHYS = 56.2 [37.5-71.9]; Mdn_Yes-ePHYS = 75 [62.5-97.5]; P = .004; Wilcoxon r effect size = 0.5) and one-year health transition (Mdn_No-ePHYS = 50 [50-75]; Mdn_Yes-ePHYS = 75 [50-100]; P = .031; Wilcoxon r effect size = 0.29), where patients who belonged to NO-ePHYS had lower scores than those who did receive ePHYS.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite not having found statistically significant differences in most of the items assessed, we should highlight that patients who received ePHYS reported a clear positive influence on their lives.

PMID:41152078 | DOI:10.1016/j.medine.2025.502341