A clinical pathway for community-acquired pneumonia: an observational cohort study

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 1 Patient demographics by initial antibiotic regimen *, †

Characteristic	Pathway	Non-Pathway	p-value
	(n = 505)	(n = 287)
Age (yrs), median (IQR)	58 (45-71)	68 (51-81)	*<0.01*
Sex
Male	46%	40%	0.1
Female	54%	60%	--
Race
White	68%	71%	0.5
Hispanic	17%	14%	--
Black	11%	10%	--
Other	4%	5%	--
Comorbidities
Neoplastic disease	10%	13%	0.2
Liver disease	6%	8%	0.2
Heart failure	10%	14%	0.06
Cerebrovascular disease	5%	7%	0.4
Diabetes mellitus	24%	21%	0.5
COPD	19%	26%	*0.02*
Asthma	15%	16%	0.9
Depression	9%	10%	0.5
Social history
Tobacco (smoker)	28%	30%	0.5
Alcohol	16%	15%	0.6
Intravenous drug abuse	3%	3%	0.9
Admitting Service
Medicine	92%	92%	0.9
Other	8%	8%	--

* Pathway = levofloxacin 750 mg intravenous or oral daily OR ceftriaxone 1000 mg intravenous plus azithromycin 500 mg intravenous or oral daily OR either of these antibiotic regimens at higher doses; Non-pathway = these antibiotics at lower doses OR alternative antibiotics; COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
† The following statistical tests were used: Chi-square (sex, race, individual comorbidities, social history, and admitting service) and Student's t-test (age).

ISSN: 1471-2334