Epidemiology of the demographic and clinical characteristics of sepsis patients treated in 739 Australian Hospitals, 2013-2018
Ling Li1, Johanna Westbrook1, , 1Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Introduction
Sepsis is responsible for a significant proportion of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. This study aimed to examine demographic and clinical characteristics of sepsis patients and variations over time.
Methods
Patients admitted to 739 Australian public hospitals from 2013 to 2018 were included. Sepsis patients were identified based on the recorded diagnosis codes. Age standardised sepsis incidence rates were calculated according to patient demographic and clinical characteristics.
Results
A total of 437,354 hospitalisations had a coded diagnosis of sepsis (incidence rate: 1,835.5 per 100,000 hospitalisations). The average age of sepsis patients was 60.1 years and 54.7% were male. Nearly half (46.6%) had a comorbidity recorded, with 26.7% having a Charlson Comorbidity Index of ≥3. Age standardised sepsis incidence was 5.5 times higher among those with a comorbidity compared to those without. Nearly 10% required ventilatory support with a median duration of 97 hours (inter-quartile range (IQR): 38-215). Overall, 22.3% had an ICU admission with a median ICU length of stay (LOS) of 3.3 days (IQR: 1.6-7.7), which was double that of non-sepsis patients in ICU. While the median ICU LOS of non-sepsis patients remained the same over the study period, there was an 11% reduction (by 9 hours from 85 to 76 hours) among sepsis patients.
Conclusion
This is the first nationwide study of sepsis hospitalisations and demonstrated that sepsis remains a significant healthcare problem. Results provide a foundation for further investigation into the financial cost and burden of sepsis on individuals, the community and health system.
Biography
Associate Professor Ling Li leads the Health Analytics and Patient Safety stream at the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Macquarie University. Ling has been working in the healthcare research area for more than 10 years since completing her PhD in Statistics. She has over 100 publications and has a successful track record in collaborating with clinicians and policy makers. One of her main research interests is to utilise real-world healthcare data to answer clinical and health services questions.