Communication and quality of life in individuals receiving home mechanical ventilation

Aims: While in clinical reality many ventilator-supported individuals have been observed to experience difficulties with their communication, research in this area is still scarce. The article aims to address this gap by looking at communicative activity and participation and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in individuals receiving home mechanical ventilation (HMV). The study focuses on how patients themselves experience their communicative participation and HRQL, and whether there might be a relationship between demographic factors, HRQL, and communicative activity and participation. Methods: Nineteen individuals receiving HMV via tracheostomy (n=17) or non-invasive means (n=2) participated in the study. Three different questionnaires were used: the generic Sickness Impact Profile, the disease-specific Severe Respiratory Insufficiency questionnaire, and the Living with Dysarthria questionnaire measuring communicative participation. Communicative activity was assessed in terms of speech intelligibility. Findings: The study found that speech intelligibility is decreased in individuals receiving HMV and that these individuals experience high levels of dysfunction in their communication. Still, communicative participation was not severely impaired. The study did not demonstrate any significant correlation between quality of life measures and communicative participation or intelligibility. Conclusions: Communication was one of the areas of HRQL with which the participants experienced difficulties. Nevertheless, the results of the study show that communicative participation and intelligibility levels do not contribute independently to the reduced HRQL.