Cardiovascular death among seniors with pneumonia down with antibiotic therapy

In the treatment of older patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), the use of guideline-concordant antibiotic therapy significantly lowers the risk of cardiovascular death in the first year of follow-up, as reported in a study.

The study included 1,909 older patients (>65 years of age) who survived hospitalization for CAP at The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada. These patients’ information were linked to hospital and provincial datasets.

Researchers looked at whether the initial antibiotic therapy given to patients was concordant with current clinical practice guidelines and whether guideline-concordance therapy had a favourable effect on survival outcomes 1 year after the index CAP hospitalization. They used Cox regression analysis with adjustments for overall 1-year expected death risk, CAP severity, and history of previous pneumonia admissions, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and cerebrovascular disease.

Results revealed that guideline-concordant antibiotic therapy was indeed associated with a trend towards lower all-cause mortality at 1-year post-CAP (hazard ratio [HR], 0.82, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.65–1.04, p=0.099).

Additionally, guideline-concordant antibiotic therapy almost halved the risk of cardiovascular death risk 1 year after CAP admission (HR, 0.53, 95 percent CI, 0.34–0.80; p=0.003).

The findings provide evidence to support current clinical practice guideline recommendations for CAP treatment.