Table 4.
Process-of-care of patients with community-acquired pneumonia according to etiologic categories (N° = 390)
| Process-of-care | Conventional Bacteria (N = 163) | Atypical Agents (N = 151) | Virus (N = 41) | Mixed Infection (N = 35) | P value║ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antibiotics prescribed |
|
|
|
|
0.0004 |
| Betalactam |
39 (23.9) |
33 (22.3) |
9 (22.5) |
4 (11.4) |
|
| Macrolide |
3 (1.8) |
24 (16.2) |
5 (12.5) |
3 (8.6) |
|
| Betalactam/macrolide |
19 (11.7) |
5 (3.4) |
4 (10) |
0 (0) |
|
| Fluoroquinolone |
99 (60.7) |
85 (57.4) |
22 (55) |
28 (80) |
|
| Others |
3 (1.8) |
1 (0.7) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
|
| Taking antibiotics prior to diagnosis |
25 (16.1) |
27 (18.9) |
7 (18) |
7 (20.6) |
0.9 |
| Appropriate antibiotic therapy according to Spanish guidelines* |
121 (74.2) |
89 (60.1) |
26 (65) |
28 (80) |
0.02 |
| Appropriate antibiotic therapy according to American guidelines* |
123 (75.5) |
113 (76.4) |
31 (77.5) |
31 (88.6) |
0.4 |
| Antibiotics within 8 hours† |
111 (91.7) |
34 (87.2) |
8 (61.5) |
21 (100) |
0.002 |
| Duration of antibiotic therapy after diagnosis, mean (SD), days‡ |
10 (2.5) |
10.3 (2.1) |
10.2 (1.5) |
9 (2.6) |
0.03 |
| Duration of intravenous therapy after diagnosis, mean (SD), days†‡ | 3.2 (3) | 2.4 (2.1) | 2.5 (1.8) | 2.2 (1.4) | 0.3 |
SD = standard deviation.
Data are presented as numbers (percentage) of patients unless otherwise stated. Percentages exclude patients with missing data. Treatment failure, septic shock, and severe sepsis are defined in text.
*Appropriate antibiotic according to Spanish guidelines (reference 13). Appropriate antibiotic according American guidelines (reference 14).
† Only for hospitalized patients.
‡ Inhospital deaths are excluded.
║ The p-value obtained from the Chi-square or Fisher exact test for categorical variables, and Kruskal-Wallis test for continuous variables.