A worldwide perspective of sepsis epidemiology and survival according to age: Observational data from the ICON audit

Purpose To investigate age-related differences in outcomes of critically ill patients with sepsis around the world. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of data from the prospective ICON audit, in which all adult (>16 years) patients admitted to participating ICUs between May 8 and 18, 2012, were included, except admissions for routine postoperative observation. For this sub-analysis, the 10,012 patients with completed age data were included. They were divided into five age groups – ≤50, 51–60, 61–70, 71–80, >80 years. Sepsis was defined as infection plus at least one organ failure. Results A total of 2963 patients had sepsis, with similar proportions across the age groups (≤50 = 25.2%; 51–60 = 30.3%; 61–70 = 32.8%; 71–80 = 30.7%; >80 = 30.9%). Hospital mortality increased with age and in patients >80 years was almost twice that of patients ≤50 years (49.3% vs 25.2%, p < .05). The maximum rate of increase in mortality was about 0.75% per year, occurring between the ages of 71 and 77 years. In multilevel analysis, age > 70 years was independently associated with increased risk of dying. Conclusions The odds for death in ICU patients with sepsis increased with age with the maximal rate of increase occurring between the ages of 71 and 77 years.

• View at Publisher