Table 2.
Clinical characteristics by race
| Characteristic | Caucasian n = 3,742 |
African-American n = 2,779 |
Total n = 6,521 |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-hospital death (%)** | 10.3 | 12.9 | 11.4 |
| 1-year mortality (%)* | 22.5 | 25.3 | 23.7 |
| Length of stay (in days):*** | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| median (interquartile range) | (2.0 to 6.0) | (2.0 to 7.0) | (2.0 to 7.0) |
| Diagnosis-related group classification:*** | |||
| Medical (%) | 66.8 | 71.9 | 69.0 |
| Surgical (%) | 33.2 | 28.1 | 31.0 |
| Teaching hospital (%)*** | 40.3 | 46.8 | 43.1 |
| Admission classified as emergent (%)*** | 43.5 | 52.4 | 47.3 |
| Transferred from another hospital (%) | 4.3 | 5.2 | 4.7 |
| Comorbidity index score: mean (std. dev.) *** | 1.85 (2.83) | 2.18 (2.70) | 1.99 (2.78) |
| Heart failure (%) | 11.0 | 9.6 | |
| Cerebrovascular disease (%) | 5.9 | 6.3 | |
| Diabetes mellitus (%) ** | 10.7 | 13.4 | |
| Myocardial infaction (%) *** | 6.6 | 4.0 | |
| Perivascular disease (%) | 3.3 | 2.6 | |
| Renal failure (%) *** | 4.5 | 14.2 | |
| AIDS (%) * | 0 | 0.3 | |
| Metastatic cancer (%) | 2.0 | 1.5 | |
| Any malignancy (%) ** | 4.8 | 3.0 | |
| Severe liver disease (%) | 2.2 | 1.8 | |
| Pericarditis (%) *** | 0.6 | 1.9 | |
| Pleuritis (%) | 2.7 | 3.4 | |
| Nephritis (%) *** | 6.2 | 15.5 | |
| Thrombocytopenia (%) *** | 4.0 | 6.1 |
*
p < 0.05 comparing Caucasians to African-Americans by t-tests, chi-square tests, or Wilcoxon rank sum tests, as appropriate.
**
p < 0.001 comparing Caucasians to African-Americans by t-tests, chi-square tests, or Wilcoxon rank sum tests, as appropriate.
***
p < 0.0001 comparing Caucasians to African-Americans by t-tests, chi-square tests, or Wilcoxon rank sum tests, as appropriate.