PWE-183 Does Insertion of a Gastrostomy Confer any Quality Of Life Benefit to Either Patients or their Carers?

Introduction Gastrostomy feeding is an effective means of providing enteral nutrition to patients who have functionally normal gastrointestinal tracts but who cannot meet their nutritional requirements because of an inadequate oral intake. Whilst improvements in outcome measures such as nutritional status and mortality have been demonstrated in certain patients undergoing gastrostomy insertion, there remains a paucity of work evaluating another important health outcome measure, which is health related quality of life (HRQoL). Furthermore no previous study has looked at the impact on carers’ HRQoL when considering all referral indications for gastrostomy. This prospective, multicenter study evaluates HRQoL in both gastrostomy patients and their carers, with comparisons made with a population control group. Methods 61 patients (mean age 68 years) and 58 carers (mean age 65 years) were prospectively recruited from 4 hospitals in South Yorkshire between Feb-Dec 2012. All individuals had HRQoL evaluated prior to gastrostomy insertion, with repeated measurements undertaken at 3 months. Assessment was undertaken using EQ-5D, a validated assessment tool and preferential measure used by NICE, producing scores between 0 for dead and 1 for perfect health. Findings were then compared with a separate cohort of population controls (n = 419), to determine if differences existed in HRQoL. Non-parametric statistical analysis was undertaken using a Wilcoxon Rank test to compare longitudinal paired EQ-5D scores, and a Mann-Whitney test to compare EQ-5D scores between groups, with p values Results 61 gastrostomy patients have been assessed to date. Of these, 3 died prior the 3 month reassessment post insertion. No significant change was shown in mean EQ-5D scores in either the gastrostomy patients (0.74 versus 0.73, p = 0.11) or their carers (0.96 versus 0.97, p = 0.30) at 3 months following gastrostomy insertion. When compared to population controls, carers had comparable scores to the population controls unlike the gastrostomy patients who had significantly lower mean EQ-5D scores (0.73 versus 0.94, p Conclusion This study demonstrates that HRQoL does not significantly improve for patients or their carers following gastrostomy insertion. Given that gastrostomy feeding has no positive effect on HRQoL, questions must be raised as to the merits of this intervention if it only serves to improve physiological outcomes. Disclosure of Interest None Declared.