Characteristics and provision of care of patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome: descriptive findings from the DACAPO cohort baseline and comparison with international findings.

Background: Little is known about the characteristics and real world life circumstances of ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) patient populations. This knowledge is essential for transferring evidence-based therapy into routine healthcare. The aim of this study was to report socio-demographic and clinical characteristics in an unselected population of ARDS patients and to compare these results to findings from other large ARDS cohorts.

Determinants of Quality of Life and Return to Work Following Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in adults is a consequence of lung damage caused by either pulmonary or extrapulmonary disease. Survivors often suffer from an impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL), mental and physical impairments, and persistent inability to work.

Methods: In this systematic review of the literature, we consider the determinants of HRQoL and return to work (RtW).

Influence of quality of care and individual patient characteristics on quality of life and return to work in survivors of the acute respiratory distress syndrome: protocol for a prospective, observational, multi-centre patient cohort study (DACAPO).

Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and return to work are important outcomes in critical care medicine, reaching beyond mortality. Little is known on factors predictive of HRQoL and return to work in critical illness, including the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and no evidence exists on the role of quality of care (QoC) for outcomes in survivors of ARDS. It is the aim of the DACAPO study ("Surviving ARDS: the influence of QoC and individual patient characteristics on quality of life") to investigate the role of QoC and individual patient characteristics on quality of life and return to work.

[Role of Institutional Review Boards for multi-centre studies in national health services research - a cross-sectional study of the effort to obtain secondary ethical approvals for the DACAPO study].

Background: Health services research (HSR) is of fundamental importance for the continuous improvement of preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic measures. The conduct of multi-centre HSR studies requires that ethical approval by Institutional review boards (IRB's) is obtained. We documented the effort, the complexity and the man power necessary to obtain secondary ethical approval for a national HSR in Germany ("Surviving the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome" [DACAPO-study]).