Cause‐specific long‐term mortality rates in patients recovered from community‐acquired pneumonia as compared with the general Dutch population

Abstract Insights into long‐term mortality, especially into the cause of death after initial recovery from an episode of community‐acquired pneumonia (CAP), may help in determining optimal preventive measures in such patients. Prospective observational cohort studies were conducted to compare cause‐specific long‐term mortality rates for 356 patients who had recovered from CAP with those of the general Dutch population (16.3 million) between 2003 and 2007. The Dutch Municipal Public Records Database and death certificates were used to determine cause‐specific mortality rates up to 7 years after discharge. In patients who had recovered from CAP, cumulative 1‐year, 5‐year and 7‐year mortality rates were 17%, 43% and 53%, respectively, as compared with 4%, 19% and 24% for an age‐matched and sex‐matched population reference cohort. Overall, patients who had recovered from CAP had significantly higher long‐term mortality than matched population controls (rate ratio (RR) 3.6; p