Internal Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Role of Statins in Clinical Outcomes of Hospitalised Patients with Community Acquired Pneumonia

Yogesh Sharma*, Soumyadeep Bose, Chris Horwood, Paul Hakendorf and Campbell Thompson

Introduction: Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is a leading infectious cause of death in developed countries. The role of statins in CAP is contentious and limited studies are available in the Australian healthcare-settings. This study determined whether statin-usage has any beneficial effects on clinical outcomes in hospitalized CAP patients.

Methods: All adult CAP patients admitted to a tertiary-care hospital over a period of 3-months were included in this study. Data regarding patients’ demographic characteristics, pneumonia-severity, statin-usage and clinical-outcomes were obtained from medical records. Propensity-score matching was used to match known confounders between statin-users and non-users. The primary outcome measure was to determine whether statin-users had a reduced in-hospital or 30-day mortality when compared to statin non-users. Secondary outcome measures included any differences in length of hospital-stay, intensive-care-unit admission and 30-day re-admissions between the two groups.

Results: This study included 140 patients with CAP, mean age 69.3 (SD 17.2) (range 21-97) years, 52.1% were females. Fifty-six (40%) patients were on-statins at the time of hospital admission. Statin-users were more likely to be older males, with a higher Charlson-index and cardiovascular risk factors than statin non-users (P<0.05). When compared to statin non-users, statin-users had higher pneumonia-severity scores but significantly lower CRP levels (P<0.05). There were no differences in in-hospital mortality (2(2.4%) vs. 2(3.6%), P>0.05) or 30-day mortality (6 (7.1%) vs. 5 (8.9%), P>0.05), between the two groups. Other clinical outcomes were also similar between the two groups (P>0.05).

Conclusion: This study suggests similar clinical outcomes for CAP between statin-users and non-users.

Published Date: 2022-02-11; Received Date: 2022-01-14