Abstract
Background
Streptococcus pneumoniae infection is the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia in adults. Invasive
pneumococcal disease (IPD) carries a high case fatality rate. We investigated the
lifespan of adults who recovered from IPD during a 32-year follow-up.
Materials and Methods
We determined whether adults discharged after an episode of IPD from hospitals affiliated
with the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington, West
Virginia from 1983-2003 were alive on June 30, 2014. Lifespan was assessed by Kaplan-Meier
methodology, Cox proportional hazards multivariate analysis, life expectancy using
life tables for West Virginia, years of potential life lost and serotype occurrence.
Results
The study group comprised 155 adults who survived IPD. They had a mean age at discharge
of 64.6 years, mean lifespan after IPD of 7.1 years, mean expected lifespan after
IPD of 17.0 years, mean age at death of 71.6 years and a mean life expectancy of 81.6
years. Only 14 (9.0%) patients lived longer than their life expectancy. Of the 13
comorbid diseases analyzed, cancer and neurologic diseases and the number of comorbid
diseases suffered by each patient were the significant variables associated with survival.
The mean years of potential life lost was 9.936 years. Only serotype 12 of 31 serotypes
recovered occurred more often in patients who survived for 11 or more years after
discharge (relative risk = 3.44, 95% CI: 1.19-9.95).
Conclusions
The fact that most adult patients who recovered from IPD died before their documented
life expectancy argues for the pernicious severity of IPD and the importance of immunization
of adults with pneumococcal vaccines.
Key Indexing Terms
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 23, 2017
Accepted:
March 2,
2017
Received in revised form:
January 24,
2017
Received:
November 7,
2016
Footnotes
☆The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
☆☆This work was supported by funds from the Departments of Medicine and Pathology, Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Huntington, West Virginia.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by All rights reserved.
