One-year survival of patients admitted for sepsis to intensive care units in Colombia

TL;DR

This study finds that sepsis patients in Colombian ICUs have a high one-year mortality rate, especially among older men and those with certain health conditions.

Contribution

The study provides new data on one-year sepsis mortality in Colombia, a region with limited prior research on this topic.

Findings

4.428 (36.73%) of sepsis patients died within one year.

Age over 80 years and male gender were strongly associated with increased sepsis mortality.

Renal disease, liver disease, and cancer were significant covariates for one-year mortality.

Abstract

Sepsis is a frequent cause of admission to intensive care units (ICUs). High mortality rates are estimated globally, and in our country, few studies have reported one-year survival. The objective of this study is to determine one-year survival in patients with sepsis admitted to the ICU in Colombia, compared with the survival of patients admitted for other conditions.

Retrospective cohort study using administrative databases from the Ministry of Health of Colombia. One-year survival and the adjusted hazard ratio for survival, adjusted for comorbidities included in the Charlson Index, were determined using a Cox proportional hazards model for patients admitted for other causes as well as for those admitted for sepsis. This was then compared with an inverse propensity score weighting model.

A total of 116.407 patients were initially admitted to the ICUs, with 12.056 (10.36%) diagnosed with sepsis. Within the first year, 4.428 (36.73%) patients died due to sepsis. Age and male gender were associated with an increased risk of death from sepsis, and the covariates associated with one-year mortality were as follows: age over 80 years with HR 9.91 (95% CI: 9.22–10.65), renal disease with HR 3.16 (95% CI: 3.03–3.29), primary tumoral disease with HR 2.07 (95% CI: 1.92–2.23), liver disease with HR 2.27 (95% CI: 2.07–2.50), and metastatic solid tumor with HR 2.03 (95% CI: 1.92–2.15).

This study revealed a high one-year sepsis mortality rate in the population, associated with variables such as age over 80 years, the presence of renal disease, liver disease, connective tissue diseases, and cancer. Men exhibited higher mortality compared to women.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-024-09584-7.

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