Table 1.
Characteristics of patients in early antibiotic use (EAU) and non-early antibiotic use (NEAU) groups before and after propensity score matching.
| Parameters | Unmatched (n=1373) |
Matched (N=746)a |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEAU | EAU | P-valueb | NEAU | EAU | P-valueb | |||||
| n | 620 | 753 | 373 | 373 | ||||||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | |||
| Age (years) | 55.1 | 17.4 | 49.0 | 16.7 | <0.0001 | 53.3 | 16.8 | 51.5 | 17.8 | 0.1596 |
| Length of stay (days) | 14.6 | 7.2 | 17.8 | 7.8 | <0.0001 | 15.2 | 7.3 | 16.7 | 7.8 | 0.0059 |
| Laboratory test | ||||||||||
| White blood cell count (109/L) | 5.7 | 1.6 | 5.2 | 2.1 | <0.0001 | 5.6 | 1.6 | 5.5 | 2.0 | 0.4127 |
| Lymphocyte percentage (%) | 30.1 | 9.2 | 28.3 | 10.5 | 0.0009 | 29.8 | 9.4 | 29.8 | 10.9 | 0.9834 |
| Procalcitonin (ng/L) | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.6396 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.6687 |
| C-reactive protein (mg/L) | 5.2 | 13.9 | 12.0 | 17.6 | <0.0001 | 6.1 | 13.9 | 7.0 | 9.9 | 0.3103 |
| Vital signs | ||||||||||
| Pulse | 83.7 | 13.5 | 85.9 | 13.5 | 0.0346 | 84.0 | 13.8 | 86.0 | 13.8 | 0.1275 |
| SBP | 131.6 | 17.3 | 125.2 | 14.1 | <0.0001 | 129.1 | 16.8 | 126.5 | 15.1 | 0.0970 |
| DBP | 79.3 | 10.8 | 76.9 | 9.0 | 0.0016 | 78.5 | 11.1 | 77.7 | 9.5 | 0.4487 |
| Respiratory rate | 19.5 | 1.8 | 19.7 | 2.0 | 0.0493 | 19.5 | 1.8 | 19.7 | 2.0 | 0.1173 |
| n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | |||
| Gender | 0.0154 | 0.7649 | ||||||||
| Female | 331 | 53.39 | 451 | 59.89 | 222 | 59.52 | 226 | 60.59 | ||
| Male | 289 | 46.61 | 302 | 40.11 | 151 | 40.48 | 147 | 39.41 | ||
| Symptom | ||||||||||
| Cough | 247 | 39.84 | 383 | 50.86 | <0.0001 | 167 | 44.77 | 162 | 43.43 | 0.7124 |
| Fever | 279 | 45.00 | 501 | 66.53 | <0.0001 | 207 | 55.50 | 199 | 53.35 | 0.5565 |
| Comorbidity | ||||||||||
| Hypertension | 212 | 34.19 | 169 | 22.44 | <0.0001 | 100 | 26.81 | 101 | 27.08 | 0.9342 |
| Malignancy | 25 | 4.03 | 44 | 5.84 | 0.1264 | 16 | 4.29 | 16 | 4.29 | 1.0000 |
| Diabetes | 98 | 15.81 | 76 | 10.09 | 0.0015 | 44 | 11.80 | 46 | 12.33 | 0.8221 |
| COPD | 37 | 5.97 | 45 | 5.98 | 0.9948 | 24 | 6.43 | 25 | 6.70 | 0.8825 |
| Coronary heart disease | 60 | 9.68 | 47 | 6.24 | 0.0181 | 27 | 7.24 | 28 | 7.51 | 0.8886 |
| Treatment | ||||||||||
| Antivirus drugs | 503 | 81.13 | 718 | 95.35 | <0.0001 | 341 | 91.42 | 341 | 91.42 | 1.0000 |
| NSAIDs | 137 | 22.10 | 226 | 30.01 | 0.0009 | 73 | 19.57 | 92 | 24.66 | 0.0937 |
| Steroids | 89 | 14.35 | 317 | 42.10 | <0.0001 | 71 | 19.03 | 91 | 24.40 | 0.0757 |
| Immunomodulators | 30 | 4.84 | 233 | 30.94 | <0.0001 | 27 | 7.24 | 32 | 8.58 | 0.4976 |
| Biologics | 140 | 22.58 | 340 | 45.15 | <0.0001 | 90 | 24.13 | 100 | 26.81 | 0.4006 |
| All-cause death (30 days) | 11 | 1.77 | 12 | 1.59 | 0.7953 | 6 | 1.61 | 4 | 1.07 | 0.5243 |
| Progression to severe disease (30 days) | 136 | 21.94 | 239 | 31.74 | <0.0001 | 87 | 23.32 | 115 | 30.83 | 0.0211 |
SD, standard deviation; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Propensity score matching was conducted to adjust for basic demographic characteristics (age and gender), symptoms (cough and fever), vital signs (DBP and respiratory rate), comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, malignancy and COPD), treatments (antiviral drugs, NSAID, steroids, immunomodulators and biologics) and laboratory data on admission (white blood cell count, lymphocyte percentage and C-reactive protein).
P-values were calculated by Chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test.