Table 1.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients tested by blood culture
| Variable | BSI (n = 237) | No BSI (n = 466) | P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years), mean (SD) | 38.4 (16.1) | 36.1 (16.1) | 0.0758 |
| Number of prior comorbidities, mean (SD) | 1.05 (0.9) | 0.94 (0.9) | 0.1255 |
| Time between admission and blood culture testing (days), mean (SD) | 15.5 (19.3) | 10.2 (25) | <0.001 |
| Gender: male | 130 (54.8) | 263 (56.4) | 0.6748 |
| Resident of Addis Ababa (urban) | 91 (38.4) | 172 (36.9) | 0.7000 |
| Prior hospitalizations (last 6 months) | 88 (37.1) | 207 (44.4) | 0.0634 |
| Admission ward | |||
| emergency | 13 (5.5) | 65 (13.9) | 0.0003 |
| ICU | 54 (22.8) | 69 (14.8) | — |
| surgery | 13 (5.5) | 45 (9.6) | — |
| medicine | 162 (68.3) | 296 (63.5) | — |
| Known prior illnesses (chronic) | |||
| malignancy | 67 (28.2) | 129 (27.7) | 0.8807 |
| cardiac illness | 33 (13.9) | 72 (15.4) | 0.5914 |
| vascular illness | 33 (13.9) | 48 (10.3) | 0.1549 |
| renal disease | 27 (11.4) | 54 (1.6) | 0.9388 |
| diabetes | 32 (13.5) | 32 (6.9) | 0.004 |
| active TB | 18 (7.6) | 38 (8.1) | 0.525 |
| pulmonary disease | 7 (2.9) | 6 (1.3) | 0.269 |
| chronic hepatic disease | 7 (2.9) | 17 (3.6) | 0.629 |
| HIV status | |||
| positive | 18 (7.6) | 38 (8.1) | 0.357 |
| negative | 92 (38.8) | 155 (33.3) | — |
| unknown | 132 (55.7) | 282 (60.5) | — |
| Reason for admission | |||
| presumed infection | 141 (59) | 299 (64) | 0.2265 |
| medical cause | 72 (30.4) | 221 (47.4) | <0.0001 |
| surgical cause | 30 (12.7) | 67 (13.4) | 0.5320 |
| oncological cause | 76 (32.1) | 140 (30.0) | 0.5823 |
| Use of antibiotics in previous 4 weeks | 236 (99.6) | 451 (96.8) | 0.1044 |
| Number of antibiotic courses (past 4 weeks) | |||
| 0 | 6 (2.5) | 24 (5.1) | 0.0001 |
| 1 | 15 (6.2) | 54 (11.6) | — |
| 2 | 57 (24.1) | 152 (32.6) | — |
| 3 | 57 (24.1) | 111 (23.8) | — |
| 4+ | 107 (45.1) | 134 (28.7) | — |
| Final diagnosis of HAI | 224 (94.5) | 309 (66.3) | <0.0001 |
| 14 day status | |||
| discharged from hospital | 59 (24.9) | 169 (36.3) | 0.0012 |
| alive but not discharged | 102 (43.0) | 199 (42.7) | — |
| death | 76 (32.1) | 98 (21.0) | — |
| Cause of death | |||
| directly attributable to infection | 61 (80.3) | 57 (58.2) | 0.006 |
| indirectly attributable to infection | 13 (17.1) | 35 (35.7) | — |
| unrelated to current infection | 1 (1.3) | 5 (5) | — |
Values are shown as n (%) unless otherwise specified. Significant P values are shown in bold.