Gender differences in 30-day mortality for patients hospitalized with acute pulmonary embolism.
BACKGROUND
Prior studies with limited clinical information reported a higher short-term mortality for men than for women with pulmonary embolism (PE). We compared 30-day mortality for men and women hospitalized with PE using a large statewide database.


METHODS
The sample consisted of 9304 female and 6227 male patient discharges for PE treated at 186 Pennsylvania hospitals between January 2000 and November 2002. We compared 30-day mortality for women and men, using random-effect logistic regression to adjust for clinical characteristics shown to predict early mortality, as well as patient race, insurance status, and hospital volume. We assessed interactions among sex, race, and clinical variables.


RESULTS
The overall crude 30-day mortality rate was 8.9% for women and 9.8% for men. The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality for women was 0.90 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.80, 1.00). After adjusting for baseline clinical and demographic characteristics, insurance status, and hospital volume, women had a lower risk of 30-day mortality (adjusted OR 0.8, 95% CI 0.7, 0.9).


CONCLUSIONS
Women hospitalized with PE had significantly lower odds of 30-day mortality compared with men.
Borrero
Sonya
S
University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Aujesky
Drahomir
D
Stone
Roslyn A
RA
Geng
Ming
M
Fine
Michael J
MJ
Ibrahim
Said A
SA
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000401:mortality*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016387:Women's Health; D001741:Black or African American