Table 2.
Performance of the Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System scores in 2,074 hospitalised childrena
| Case patients | Control patients | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patient characteristics | n | Median score (IQR) | n | Median score (IQR) | P value | AUCROC (95% CI) |
| All | 686 | 8 (5 to 12) | 1,388 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.87 (0.85 to 0.89) |
| Urgent ICU | 381 | 10 (7 to 13) | 772 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.92 (0.90 to 0.94) |
| Code blue | 305 | 6 (3 to 10) | 616 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.81 (0.78 to 0.84) |
| Age | ||||||
| < 3 months | 190 | 7 (4 to 10) | 333 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.83 (0.79 to 0.86) |
| 3 to < 12 months | 164 | 8 (6 to 11) | 362 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.86 (0.82 to 0.90) |
| 1 to < 5 years | 134 | 9 (5 to 13) | 286 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.90 (0.87 to 0.93) |
| 5 to 12 years | 110 | 10 (5 to 13) | 221 | 2 (1 to 3) | < 0.0001 | 0.89 (0.84 to 0.93) |
| > 12 years | 88 | 11 (6 to 14) | 186 | 3 (2 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.91 (0.87 to 0.95) |
| Hospital | ||||||
| A | 324 | 9 (6 to 12) | 658 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.88 (0.85 to 0.90) |
| B | 238 | 6 (4 to 9) | 478 | 1 (1 to 3) | < 0.0001 | 0.89 (0.86 to 0.92) |
| C | 80 | 12 (9 to 15.5) | 164 | 5 (2 to 6) | < 0.0001 | 0.91 (0.87 to 0.95) |
| D | 44 | 9 (4 to 12) | 88 | 2 (1 to 3) | < 0.0001 | 0.89 (0.83 to 0.96) |
| Chronic disease | ||||||
| Transplant | 58 | 11 (7 to 12) | 73 | 2 (1 to 3) | < 0.0001 | 0.94 (0.90 to 0.98) |
| Heart disease | 233 | 9 (6 to 11) | 386 | 3 (2 to 5) | < 0.0001 | 0.85 (0.81 to 0.88) |
| Severe cerebral palsy | 62 | 10 (7 to 13) | 34 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.92 (0.86 to 0.98) |
| Medical device | ||||||
| Tracheostomy | 57 | 7 (4 to 11) | 36 | 4 (1.5 to 5.5) | 0.0002 | 0.75 (0.67 to 0.86) |
| Feeding tube | 138 | 10 (6 to 13) | 112 | 3 (1 to 5) | < 0.0001 | 0.87 (0.82 to 0.91) |
| Home oxygen | 47 | 9 (6 to 11) | 27 | 5 (2 to 7) | 0.0001 | 0.81 (0.69 to 0.90) |
| Acute condition | ||||||
| Seizures > 15 minutes | 47 | 6 (3 to 10) | 6 | 2 (2 to 4) | 0.133 | 0.73 (0.48 to 0.99) |
| DKA | 0 | NA | 3 | 2 (1 to 2) | NA | NA |
| Complexity | ||||||
| > 3 services | 164 | 9 (6 to 12) | 136 | 3 (1 to 5) | < 0.0001 | 0.87 (0.83 to 0.91) |
| > 10 medications/day | 162 | 10 (6 to 13) | 109 | 3 (2 to 5) | < 0.0001 | 0.85 (0.81 to 0.90) |
| Recent transition | ||||||
| Recent primary service transfer | 18 | 7 (3 to 8) | 5 | 1 (0 to 2) | 0.048 | 0.89 (0.75 to 1.00) |
| Previous ICU admission | 345 | 8 (6 to 11) | 386 | 3 (1 to 5) | < 0.0001 | 0.84 (0.81 to 0.87) |
| < 24 hours after surgery | 55 | 7 (4 to 10) | 61 | 2 (1 to 4) | < 0.0001 | 0.79 (0.71 to 0.88) |
aIQR = interquartile range; AUCROC = area under the receiver operating characteristic curve; DKA = diabetic ketoacidosis; 95% CI: 95% confidence interval; NA: not applicable. Data are from 2,074 patients admitted to four university-affiliated paediatric hospitals. Scores were calculated from 23,288 hours with one or more items of the seven-item Bedside PEWS score.