Abstract
Seasonal incidence variation of infectious diseases is important for clinicians. We assessed the impact of influenza season on duration of stay (DOS) in hospital among pneumonia patients. In our cohort study, data from 261 patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) and 43 with hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) were retrospectively analyzed. Mean age of patients with CAP was 65.8±16.1, 195 (74.7%) were male. Mean age of patients with HAP was 69.2±11.1, 33 (76.7%) were male. There was no significant difference between patients admitted during influenza season (IS) and non-influenza season (NIS) for those with HAP in respect to age, hemograms and DOS. Mean DOS for CAP patients admitted during IS (12.3±8.2 days) was significantly longer than for those admitted during NIS (10.1±6.1 days)(p<0.05).
Patients with HAP had a significantly longer DOS (17±14.2 days) than those with CAP (12±7.7 days)(p<0.05). During NIS, patients with CAP had a shorter DOS (10.1±6.1 days) compared to those with HAP (21.0±20.7 days) (p=0.05). During IS, they did not differ. (Fig1) Among those with CAP, a greater proportion of patients aged over 70 were admitted into the hospital during IS (51.1%) than during NIS (38.4%). Among those with CAP, a negative correlation was observed between age and DOS (p<0.05) in IS. Conclusion: DOS was found to be longer in IS among CAP patients. Its impact on bed availability should be considered by further studies.
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