title: Ethnicity and sepsis characteristics and outcomes. Population based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Two distinct ethnic groups live in Southern Israel: urban Jews and rural Bedouin Arabs. These groups differ in their socioeconomic status, culture and living environment, and are treated in a single regional tertiary care hospital. We hypothesized that these two ethnic groups have different patterns of sepsis-related intensive care admissions.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included all adult patients admitted to the Soroka University Medical Center Intensive Care Units between January 2002 and December 2008, with a diagnosis of sepsis. Demographic data, medical history, and hospitalization and outcomes data were obtained. Primary outcome was all-cause mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Jewish patients admitted to the ICU (1343, 87%) were on average 17 years older than Bedouin Arabs (199, 13%). For the population <65 years, Bedouin Arabs had slightly higher age-adjusted prevalence of ICU sepsis admissions than Jewish patients (39.5 vs. 43.0, p=0.25), while for the population >65 years there was a reverse trend (21.8 vs. 19.8 p=0.49). There were no differences in the type of organ failure, sepsis severity or length of hospitalization between the two groups. Twenty eight days/in-hospital mortality was 33.9% in Bedouin Arabs vs. 45.5% in Jews, p=0.004. Following adjustment for comorbidities, age and severity of the disease, survival was unrelated to ethnicity, both at 28 days (odds ratio for Bedouin Arabs 0.86, 95% CI 0.66-1.24) and following hospital discharge (hazard ratio 0.86, 95% 0.67-1.09).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sepsis-related ICU admissions are more prevalent among Bedouin Arabs at younger age compared with the Jewish population. Adjusted for confounders, ethnicity does not influence prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Center, Soroka University Medical Center and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Galia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karp
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Perl
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: Yaniv
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Almog
authors.forename: Moti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vodonos
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dreiher
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Talmor
authors.forename: Shlomi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Codish
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Novack
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018912:Arabs; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D007585:Jews; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044469:Racial Groups; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018805:Sepsis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*