Markers of exacerbation severity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Respiratory Research

Table 3 Typical Subject Demographics According to Out-Patient and In-patient Settings

Variable/Patient Setting Type^†	Total Studies*	Total Subjects^#	Point Estimate (95% CI)	Study Data Distributions (± 2SD)	Significance Test^‡
					Z Value	P Value
Age (years)	182	27,930			0.78	0.44 (NS)
Out-patient	71	16,917	66.0 (64.6 – 67.4)	51.2 – 80.8
In-patient	112	11,013	65.3 (64.2 – 66.4)	52.3 – 78.3
Height (cm)	27	3,154			1.00	0.32 (NS)
Out-patient	14	2,581	169.7 (166.4 – 173.0)	155.1 – 184.3
In-patient	13	573	167.5 (164.8 – 170.2)	157.5 – 177.6
Weight (kg)	37	4,168			1.48	0.14 (NS)
Out-patient	15	3,176	72.8 (67.5 – 78.1)	46.9 – 98.7
In-patient	22	992	67.5 (62.9 – 72.1)	45.1 – 89.9
Body-Mass Index (kg/m ² )	29	4,250			2.08	0.038
Out-patient	6	2,273	26.2 (23.8 – 28.7)	18.5 – 34.0
In-patient	24	1,977	23.4 (22.5 – 24.3)	19.1 – 27.7
Disease Years	21	8,606			0.78	0.44 (NS)
Out-patient	15	8,354	10.9 (7.8 – 14.1)	0 – 26.4
In-patient	6	252	13.9 (7.1 – 20.7)	0 – 31.7

Symbols and Abbreviations: *Bold numbers indicate total studies (without duplicates) for the specific variable of interest; # Bold numbers indicate total subjects for out-patient and in-patient categories with respect to the specific variable of interest; † Out-patient category represents ATS/ERS 2004 Exacerbation Severity Level I (treated at home) and the in-patient category Levels II (requires hospitalisation) and III (leads to respiratory failure) combined; ‡ Outpatient and in-patient categories were compared using a two-tailed Z-test; and NS = Non-significant difference.

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