Prognostic and risk factors in patients hospitalized with bacterial pneumonia

: We studied 316 adults with community-and hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia admitted from January 1998 to July 2003. Of these, 66 (20.9%) died. Classified by age, none under 70 died, but mortality increased to 22.6% in the 70-79 age group, 31.6% in the 80-89 age group and 24.2% in the group over 90. Mortality was 3.4% (6/177) for mild pneumonia, 32.0% (24/75) for moderate pneumonia, and 56.3% (36/64) for severe pneumonia. Mortality in hospital-acquired pneumonia (69.1%) was significantly higher than that in community-acquired pneumonia (10.7%). This may result from the higher percentage of moderate by and severe by ill patients who contracted hospital-acquired pneumonia, since 80% of those with hospital-acquired pneumonia were in the moderate and severe group compared to 36.4% of those with community-acquired pneumonia. For antibiotic regimens, mortality was 18.2% to 36.4% for patients who underwent Penicillins-Cephems therapy compared with 51.6% to 66.7% for Carbapenems-Quinolones therapy. The reasons for these differences remain unclear. Our study indicates that severity of illness, age, and antibiotic therapy were factors correlated with death from pneumonia. Underlying diseases such as respiratory failure, chronic heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, renal failure, malignancy, and senile dementia may also be associated with mortality.