Severe acute respiratory infection risk following glucocorticosteroid treatment in uncomplicated influenza-like illness resulting from pH1N1 influenza infection: a case control study

Table 1 Demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms, underlying conditions, influenza vaccination history, and exposure to persons with influenza-like illness (ILI) in 50 severe acute respiratory infection (sARI) cases and 79 ILI controls infected with pH1N1 influenza

Items	Variables	Number exposed		Percent exposed		p-value^c
Items	Variables	Case (N = 50)	Control (N = 79)	Case	Control	p-value^c
Demographic characteristics	Sex					0.19
	Male	30	38	60.0	48.1
	Female	20	41	40.0	51.9
	Age group					0.11
	<3y	7	9	14	11.4
	4–12y	26	32	52	40.5
	13–49y	9	30	18	38.0
	>50y	8	8	16	10.1
Symptoms before sARI ^a	Fever					0.37
	37.5 °C–37.9 °C	10	27	20	34.2
	38.0 °C–38.9 °C	25	34	50	43.0
	39.0 °C − 39.9 °C	13	16	26	20.2
	40.0 °C–40.9 °C	2	2	4	2.5
	Cough	47	68	94	86.1	0.16
	Bloody sputum	1	0	2	0.0	0.39*
	Pulmonary Infiltrate	7	5	14	6.3	0.16*
Underlying conditions ^b	Pregnant	1	2	2.0	2.5	0.67*
	Obesity	3	1	6.0	1.3	0.16*
	Smoker	7	6	14.0	7.6	0.24
	Drinks alcohol	1	1	2.0	1.3	0.63*
	Underlying disease	24	19	48.0	24	0.00
	Pulmonary	16	7	32.0	8.9	0.00
	Cardiovascular	4	2	8.0	2.5	0.16*
	Metabolic	5	1	10.0	1.3	0.03*
	Renal	4	2	8.0	2.5	0.16*
	Hepatic	4	6	8.0	7.6	0.59*
	Neoplastic	4	1	8.0	1.3	0.07*
	Neurologic	2	2	4.0	2.5	0.50*
	Immunosuppression	2	0	4.0	0.0	0.15*
	Number of underlying conditions					0.012
	1	18	15	36.0	19.0
	2	3	4	6.0	5.1
	≥3	3	0	6.0	0.0
Vaccination history	Seasonal influenza vaccination in past 5 years	16	17	32.0	21.5	0.18
Vaccination history	Pandemic H1N1 vaccination	2	2	4.0	2.5	0.50*
Exposure to ILI before ILI onset	At home or work	26	42	52.0	53.2	0.90
	At home	14	13	28.0	16.5	0.12
	At work place	16	27	32.0	34.2	0.80

Symptoms before sARI ^a: We applied the time interval from ILI onset to sARI onset of the case to the matched controls to impute sARI onset for control patients. Underlying conditions ^b: According to “The Ministry of Health H1N1 flu diagnosis and treatment plan,” Underlying conditions included Pregnant, Obesity, Smoker, Drinks alcohol and Underlying disease etc., Underlying disease included Pulmonary, Cardiovascular, Metabolic, Renal, Hepatic, Neoplastic, Neurological, and Immunosuppression etc. Immunosuppression meant that the patient was taking drugs to suppress immunity or that the patient had a disease that caused immunosuppression directly. p-value^c: Chi-Square test; *Fisher exact test

ISSN: 1471-2334