Indigenous Australians critically ill with sepsis: Characteristics, outcomes, and areas for improvement

Satyen Hargovan; Taissa Groch; James Brooks; Sayonne Sivalingam; Tatum Bond; Angus Carter

doi:10.1016/j.aucc.2023.11.007

Indigenous Australians critically ill with sepsis: Characteristics, outcomes, and areas for improvement

Aust Crit Care. 2024 Jan 11:S1036-7314(23)00196-0. doi: 10.1016/j.aucc.2023.11.007. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Satyen Hargovan¹, Taissa Groch², James Brooks³, Sayonne Sivalingam², Tatum Bond⁴, Angus Carter⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Cairns Hospital and Hinterland Health Service, Cairns, Queensland, Australia; College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: satyen.hargovan@my.jcu.edu.au.
² Department of Anaesthetics, Cairns Hospital, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
³ Department of Anaesthetics, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Gloucester, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Emergency Medicine, Cairns Hospital and Hinterland Health Service, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Bendigo Hospital, Victoria, Australia.

PMID: 38216417
DOI: 10.1016/j.aucc.2023.11.007

Abstract

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have amongst the highest incidence of sepsis globally.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics, short- and long-term outcomes of non-Indigenous, Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander Australians admitted with sepsis to an intensive care unit (ICU) to inform healthcare outcome improvement.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 500 consecutive sepsis admissions to the Cairns Hospital ICU compared clinical characteristics, short-term (before ICU discharge) and long-term (2000 days posthospital discharge) outcomes. Cohort stratification was done by voluntary disclosure of Indigenous status.

Results: Of the 442 individual admissions, 145 (33%) identified as Indigenous Australian. Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians had similar admission Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-3 scores (median [interquartile range]: 70 [52-87] vs. 69 [53-87], P = 0.87), but Indigenous patients were younger (53 [43-60] vs. 62 [52-73] years, P < 0.001) and were more likely to have chronic comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes (58% vs. 23%, P < 0.001), cardiovascular disease (40% vs 28%, P = 0.01), and renal disease (39% vs. 10%, P < 0.001). They also had more hazardous healthcare behaviours such as smoking (61% vs. 45%, P = 0.002) and excess alcohol consumption (40% vs. 18%, P < 0.001). Despite this, the case-fatality rate of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians before ICU discharge (13% vs. 12%, P = 0.75) and 2000 days post hospital discharge (25 % vs. 28 %, P = 0.40) was similar. Crucially, however, Indigenous Australians died younger both in the ICU (median [interquartile range] 54 (50-60) vs. 70 [61-76], P < 0.0001) and 2000 days post hospital discharge (58 [53-63] vs. 70 [63-77] years, P < 0.0001).

Conclusions: Although Indigenous Australians critically ill with sepsis have similar short and long-term mortality rates, they present to hospital, die in-hospital, and die post-discharge significantly younger. Unique cohort characteristics may explain these outcomes, and assist clinicians, researchers and policy-makers in targeting interventions to these characteristics to best reduce the burden of sepsis in this cohort and improve their healthcare outcomes.

Keywords: Improving outcomes; Indigenous; Intensive care unit; Primary health care; Public health; Sepsis.