title: Death rates among patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia: a reexamination with data from three states.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Death rates for community-acquired pneumonia based on relatively small-scale, published studies tend to exceed 15% to 20%. This study reexamined these estimates by using very large, population-based databases.
  
  
  METHODS
  Death rates from 1993 associated with community-acquired pneumonia were reexamined with hospital discharge data from all of Washington, Illinois, and Florida.
  
  
  RESULTS
  These death rates were substantially lower (7.0%, 8.1%, and 9.7%, respectively) than what appears in the literature. Significant risk factors for dying were being 65 years of age or older (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9), being positive for human immunodeficiency virus (OR = 2.9), and having a high severity of illness (OR = 7.1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sampling bias associated with selection for hospital admissions explain the discrepancy between previous and this study's results.
authors.affiliation: Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ 08543-4500, USA.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Markowitz
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pashko
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Gutterman
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Linde-Zwirble
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Newbold
mesh_terms: D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000401:mortality; D000368:Aged; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida / Q000453:epidemiology; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000401:mortality*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012307:Risk Factors; D015983:Selection Bias; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014861:Washington / Q000453:epidemiology