Risk factors associated with mortality in multivariate analysis:
(1) age > 65 years
(2) multilobar infiltrate
(3) one or comorbid conditions (not including diabetes)
(4) diabetes mellitus
(5) bacteremia
(6) empyema or complicated effusion
Comorbid conditions:
(1) neoplastic disease
(2) congestive heart disease
(3) cerebrovascular disease
(4) chronic renal disease
(5) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
(6) chronic liver disease
(7) HIV infection
where:
• The odds ratios range from 2.1 to 4.7.
• A patient may have more than 1 comorbid condition. It appears as if the presence of a comorbid condition is counted once, but an alternative would be to count each one present.
For the implementation I will use a simple additive score with 1 point for each factor except (a) multilobar infiltrate (assigned 2 points) and (b) comorbid condition and bacteremia (assigned 1.5 points). The maximum cumulative score would be 8.
