Table 2.

Patient characteristics by hospital unit type for initial swallowing assessment

Characteristics	ICU (n = 59)	Ward (n = 20)	P value*
Patient demographics
Age group, yr, median (IQR)	51 (45, 60)	49 (42, 63)	0.96
Female, n (%)	28 (47%)	14 (70%)	0.12
White, n (%)	34 (58%)	14 (70%)	0.43
Baseline health status
Comorbidity scores, median (IQR)
Charlson Comorbidity Index at ICU admission	1 (0, 4)	2 (1, 6)	0.22
Functional Comorbidity Index at ICU admission	1 (0, 3)	2 (1, 3)	0.65
Neurologic disease, n (%)	9 (47%)	5 (56%)	1.00
Upper gastrointestinal disease, n (%)	11 (58%)	5 (56%)	1.00
ICU characteristics
ICU admission diagnosis, n (%)			0.85
Respiratory (including pneumonia)	32 (54%)	11 (55%)
Nonpulmonary sepsis and infectious disease	9 (15%)	4 (20%)
Upper gastrointestinal disease	10 (17%)	3 (15%)
Cardiovascular disease	1 (2%)	1 (5%)
Trauma	3 (5%)	0 (0%)
Other	4 (7%)	1 (5%)
Primary risk factors for ALI
Aspiration, n (%)	5 (8%)	3 (15%)	0.41
Pneumonia, n (%)	30 (51%)	9 (45%)	0.80
APACHE II score at ICU admission, median (IQR)	22 (17, 29)	24 (18, 30)	0.79
SOFA score at ALI onset, median (IQR)	8 (6, 11)	8 (5, 10)	0.24
Ever reintubated, n (%)	10 (17%)	1 (5%)	0.27
Intubation duration, d, median (IQR)	8 (7, 11)	10 (8, 16)	0.07
Organizational characteristics
Medical (vs. surgical) ICU, n (%)	41 (69%)	17 (85%)	0.25
Hospital study site, n (%)†			0.10
1	14 (24%)	7 (35%)
2	14 (24%)	8 (40%)
3‡	31 (53%)	5 (25%)

Definition of abbreviations: ALI = acute lung injury; APACHE II = Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II; ICU = intensive care unit; IQR = interquartile range; SOFA = Sequential Organ Failure Assessment.

^*Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Fisher’s exact test, or χ² test.

^†Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.

^‡Hospital uses a referral algorithm.