Interest in the global burden of critical illness and its sequelae are growing, but comprehensive data to describe the burden of acute and post-acute illness and the resources available to provide care are lacking. Challenges to obtaining population-based global estimates of critical illness include the syndrome-based definitions of critical illness, incorrect equating of ‘critical illness’ with ‘admission to an intensive care unit’, lack of reliable case ascertainment in administrative data, and short prodrome and high mortality of critical illness, limiting the number of prevalent cases. Estimates of the burden of post-critical illness morbidity are even less reliable, owing to the limited number of observational studies, inaccurate coding in administrative data, and the unclear attributable risk of these morbidities to critical illness. Modelling techniques will be required to estimate the burden of critical illness and disparities in access to critical care using existing data sources. Demands for critical care and post-discharge care for survivors are likely to increase because of urbanization, an ageing demographic, and ongoing wars, disasters, and pandemics, while the ability to assume the cost of increased critical care may be limited due to economic factors. Major public health questions remain unanswered regarding the worldwide burden of critical illness and its sequelae, variation in resources available for treatment, and strategies that are broadly effective and feasible to prevent and treat critical illness and its consequences.
Society of Critical Care Medicine’s International Consensus Conference on Prediction and Identification of Long-Term Impairments After Critical Illness