Expanding the definition beyond surveillance criteria reveals a large burden of osteomyelitis caused by group B Streptococcus in the United States Veterans Health Administration

Table 2 Characteristics of patients from the US Veterans Health Administration with monomicrobial GBS osteomyelitis

Characteristics	All (n = 502)	Definite GBS osteomyelitis (n = 426)	Probable GBS osteomyelitis (n = 76)	P-value^a
Male sex, No. (%)^b	493 (98%)	420 (99%)	73 (96%)	0.286
Age, mean (± SD)^c	62.7 ± 9.6	62.7 ± 9.7	62.9 ± 9.1	0.833
Race
White	353 (70%)	295 (69%)	58 (76%)	0.389
Black	101 (20%)	90 (21%)	11 (14%)
Other^d	48 (10%)	41 (10%)	7 (9%)
Ethnicity
Non-Latinx	431 (86%)	365 (86%)	66 (87%)	0.125
Latinx	54 (11%)	49 (12%)	5 (7%)
Other^d	17 (3%)	12 (3%)	5 (7%)
Charlson Comorbidity Index, mean (± SD)^c	3.92 ± 2.3	3.82 ± 2.2	4.46 ± 2.6	0.047
Specific medical comorbid conditions
Diabetes mellitus	450 (90%)	387 (91%)	63 (83%)	0.057
Peripheral vascular disease	177 (35%)	140 (33%)	37 (49%)	0.011
Heart disease	143 (28%)	125 (29%)	18 (24%)	0.385
Renal disease	144 (29%)	118 (28%)	26 (34%)	0.309
Pulmonary disease	126 (25%)	98 (23%)	28 (37%)	0.016
Stroke	65 (13%)	50 (12%)	15 (20%)	0.084
Cancer	59 (12%)	52 (12%)	7 (9%)	0.580
Liver disease	57 (11%)	49 (12%)	8 (11%)	0.960
AIDS/HIV	5 (1%)	4 (1%)	1 (1%)	1.000
Body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30	246 (49%)	208 (49%)	38 (50%)	0.949
Diabetic with a hemoglobin A1c ≥ 7.5	356 (71%)	310 (73%)	46 (61%)	0.064

^aCompares definitive vs. probable osteomyelitis
^bAll values written as No. (%) unless otherwise indicated
^cSD, standard deviation
^dFor Race includes American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and unknown; for Ethnicity includes unknown

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