Hospitalisations with various conditions and all-cause mortality
| Number of events (%)* | Unadjusted relative risk (95% CI) | Adjusted relative risk (95% CI) † | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clarithromycin n=52 251 | Azithromycin n=46 618 | |||
| Acute kidney injury | 52 (0.10) | 44 (0.09) | 1.05 (0.71 to 1.58) | 1.06 (0.71 to 1.58) |
| Myocardial infarction | 39 (0.07) | 30 (0.06) | 1.16 (0.72 to 1.87) | 1.15 (0.71 to 1.85) |
| Neuroimaging‡ | 582 (1.11) | 496 (1.06) | 1.05 (0.93 to 1.18) | 1.04 (0.93 to 1.18) |
| Hypotension | 19 (0.04) | 14 (0.03) | 1.21 (0.61 to 2.42) | 1.21 (0.61 to 2.41) |
| Syncope | 14 (0.03) | 12 (0.03) | 1.04 (0.48 to 2.25) | 1.04 (0.48 to 2.25) |
| Hyperkalaemia | 9 (0.02) | 12 (0.03) | 0.67 (0.28 to 1.59) | 0.67 (0.28 to 1.60) |
| Hyponatraemia | 29 (0.06) | 29 (0.06) | 0.89 (0.53 to 1.49) | 0.90 (0.54 to 1.51) |
| Hyperglycaemia | 22 (0.04) | 16 (0.03) | 1.23 (0.64 to 2.34) | 1.22 (0.64 to 2.33) |
| Arrhythmia | 49 (0.09) | 52 (0.11) | 0.84 (0.57 to 1.24) | 0.84 (0.57 to 1.24) |
| Ischaemic stroke | 17 (0.03) | 16 (0.3) | 0.95 (0.48 to 1.88) | 0.94 (0.47 to 1.86) |
| Gastrointestinal bleeding | 32 (0.06) | 30 (0.06) | 0.95 (0.58 to 1.57) | 0.95 (0.58 to 1.56) |
| Sepsis | 28 (0.05) | 18 (0.04) | 1.39 (0.77 to 2.51) | 1.38 (0.76 to 2.49) |
| All-cause mortality | 241 (0.46) | 172 (0.37) | 1.25 (1.03 to 1.52) | 1.27 (1.04 to 1.55) |
Patients prescribed azithromycin served as the comparator group.
*The number of events (and the proportion of patients who experienced an event) for all outcomes except all-cause mortality was assessed by hospital diagnosis codes. For some outcomes, this underestimates the true event rate because these codes have high specificity but low sensitivity.
†Adjusted for three covariates: age, sex and Charlson comorbidity score.
‡Neuroimaging consisted of codes for CI head scan as a proxy for delirium.