Table 3.

Characteristics, resource use and outcomes of patients with acute respiratory failure by gender and intensive care status (n = 6,621)

Variables	With intensive care			Without intensive care
	Men (n = 3,713)	Women (n = 2,169)	P Value	Men (n = 464)	Women (n = 275)	P Value
Age, years	65 (49-77)	71 (56-80)	< 0.001	70 (52-79)	72 (57-82)	0.032
≥ 65	50.9	62.9	< 0.001	59.9	62.2	0.542
Surgical condition	57.7	54.5	0.018	36.0	36.7	0.841
Cormorbidity
Charlson Comorbidity Index	1 (0-2)	1 (0-2)	0.080	1 (0-2)	1 (1-2)	0.132
COPD	8.9	4.4	< 0.001	16.2	12.0	0.121
Congestive heart failure	7.3	11.2	< 0.001	7.3	9.1	0.393
Cerebrovascular disease	17.1	19.3	0.034	8.0	10.5	0.236
Cancer	14.6	11.0	< 0.001	22.2	23.3	0.736
Principal diagnoses			0.664			0.734
Respiratory	19.8	19.3		33.3	32.1
Non-respiratory	80.2	80.7		66.7	67.9
Number of organ dysfunction	1 (1-1)	1 (1-1)	0.779	1 (1-1)	1 (1-1)	0.284
Hospital level			0.085			0.905
Medical center	41.4	41.4		58.0	56.7
Regional hospital	45.2	43.2		24.4	25.8
District hospital	13.4	15.4		17.7	17.5
Types of mechanical ventilation			< 0.001			0.001
NIV-only	2.3	4.3		32.5	42.5
NIV/INV	9.3	9.7		1.1	3.3
INV-only	88.3	86.0		66.4	54.2
Resource use
Duration of MV	3 (1-8)	3 (1-8)	0.831	1 (1-4)	2 (1-4)	0.954
ICU LOS, days	4 (2-9)	4 (2-9)	0.860	0	0	-
Hospital LOS, days	17 (8-30)	16 (8-29)	0.863	10 (5-19)	11 (6-19)	0.842
Hospital mortality	27.2	28.0	0.321	34.3	28.7	0.098

Values are expressed as median (interquartile range) or percentages.

COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; INV-only, use of invasive ventilation as the only ventilator treatment; LOS, length of stay; MV, mechanical ventilation; NIV-only, use of noninvasive ventilation as the only ventilator treatment; NIV/INV, use of both NIV and INV before or after each other.