Selected patient characteristics, comorbidities, treatments, therapies and tests (%)
| Overall | Full cohort | Propensity matched* | |||
| Day 1–2 β-blocker treated | Untreated or late treated | Day 1–2 β-blocker treated | Untreated or late treated | ||
| 35082 (100%) | 10070 (28.7%) | 25012 (71.3%) | 9161 (50%) | 9161 (50%) | |
| Underlying cardiovascular condition† | |||||
| Hypertension | 43.3 | 27.7 | 49.5 | 30.3 | 30.3 |
| Ischaemic heart disease | 25.6 | 32.0 | 23.0 | 32.1 | 31.9 |
| Heart failure | 31.1 | 40.2 | 27.5 | 37.6 | 37.7 |
| Prior MI† | 11.4 | 18.0 | 8.8 | 15.3 | 15.3 |
| Women† | 58.7 | 55.2 | 60.1 | 56.8 | 57.0 |
| Age, median (IQR) † (years)‡ | 72 (64–79) | 73 (65–80) | 72 (63–79) | 73 (65–80) | 73 (65–80) |
| Race/ethnicity | |||||
| White | 75.2 | 75.9 | 74.9 | 75.8 | 75.9 |
| Black | 9.5 | 9.1 | 9.6 | 9.2 | 8.8 |
| Hispanic | 2.5 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 2.5 |
| Other | 12.8 | 12.7 | 12.8 | 12.6 | 12.8 |
| Principal diagnosis† | |||||
| COPD | 87.0 | 88.4 | 86.4 | 88.3 | 88.1 |
| Respiratory failure | 13.0 | 11.6 | 13.6 | 11.7 | 11.9 |
| Attending physician specialty† | |||||
| Internal medicine/hospitalist | 59.8 | 60.9 | 59.4 | 60.6 | 61.3 |
| Family/general medicine | 19.7 | 19.6 | 19.7 | 19.9 | 19.2 |
| Pulmonologist | 12.1 | 10.1 | 12.9 | 10.4 | 10.5 |
| Cardiology | 2.1 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 2.6 |
| Comorbidities | |||||
| Diabetes† | 31.5 | 36.3 | 29.5 | 35.5 | 35.6 |
| Atrial fibrillation/flutter† | 16.8 | 20.7 | 15.2 | 19.8 | 20.2 |
| Depression† | 15.8 | 15.0 | 16.1 | 15.2 | 15.7 |
| Chronic pulmonary disease† | 13.1 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 11.7 | 12.0 |
| Secondary bacterial pneumonia† § | 12.0 | 11.1 | 12.3 | 11.3 | 12.8 |
| Obesity | 11.3 | 11.6 | 11.2 | 11.6 | 11.9 |
| Renal failure† | 10.8 | 15.7 | 8.8 | 13.9 | 14.2 |
| Peripheral vascular disease† | 9.3 | 12.0 | 8.2 | 11.5 | 11.2 |
| Valvular disease† | 7.3 | 9.9 | 6.3 | 9.1 | 9.1 |
| Neurological disorders | 6.7 | 6.6 | 6.8 | 6.7 | 6.6 |
| Chronic pulmonary heart disease† | 8.6 | 8.2 | 8.8 | 8.3 | 8.2 |
| Early therapies and tests | |||||
| Antibiotics† ** | 89.3 | 88.7 | 89.6 | 88.9 | 89.3 |
| High-dose steroids† | 89.6 | 87.8 | 90.3 | 88.5 | 88.3 |
| Anticholinergic bronchodilators† | 91.2 | 91.2 | 92.1 | 91.2 | 91.7 |
| Long-acting β2 agonists† | 39.9 | 37.6 | 40.8 | 38.2 | 37.5 |
| Methylxanthine† | 10.2 | 7.0 | 11.5 | 7.5 | 7.2 |
| Non-invasive ventilation† | 7.9 | 6.4 | 8.5 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Arterial blood gas† | 46.7 | 42.8 | 48.3 | 43.7 | 43.5 |
| Brain natriuretic peptide test | 60.7 | 65.5 | 58.8 | 64.6 | 65.1 |
| Cardiovascular agents | |||||
| Loop diuretics† | 40.7 | 51.0 | 36.5 | 48.5 | 48.8 |
| Thiazide diuretics | 13.7 | 13.9 | 13.6 | 13.9 | 14.0 |
| Aldosterone antagonists† | 4.0 | 6.0 | 3.2 | 4.7 | 4.5 |
| ACEI or ARB† | 44.1 | 51.0 | 41.3 | 49.1 | 48.2 |
| Digoxin† | 10.6 | 13.7 | 9.4 | 12.8 | 12.7 |
| Calcium blockers† | 35.3 | 29.9 | 37.5 | 31.9 | 32.5 |
| Antiarrhythmics† | 3.9 | 5.5 | 3.3 | 5.1 | 4.8 |
| Antiplatelets† | 45.4 | 58.9 | 39.9 | 56.9 | 57.4 |
| Statins† | 34.6 | 47.6 | 29.4 | 44.1 | 43.8 |
| Warfarin† | 9.6 | 13.2 | 8.1 | 12.1 | 11.9 |
| Nicotine cessation medications† | 8.8 | 8.0 | 9.1 | 8.1 | 7.6 |
| Nitrates† | 16.9 | 25.0 | 13.6 | 22.6 | 22.7 |
| Morphine | 7.7 | 8.1 | 7.5 | 7.9 | 7.5 |
| Number of AE-COPD admissions in prior year† | |||||
| 0 | 77.6 | 81.0 | 76.2 | 80.4 | 80.1 |
| 1 | 14.7 | 13.0 | 15.3 | 13.4 | 13.1 |
| 2+ | 7.7 | 6.0 | 8.4 | 6.2 | 6.8 |
| Hospital characteristics | |||||
| Bed size† § | |||||
| 0–200 beds | 17.5 | 17.7 | 17.4 | 18.3 | 16.9 |
| 201–300 beds | 19.2 | 19.8 | 19.0 | 19.9 | 19.3 |
| 301–500 beds | 37.0 | 35.4 | 37.6 | 35.3 | 36.4 |
| 501+ beds | 26.4 | 27.1 | 26.1 | 26.6 | 27.4 |
| Census region† | |||||
| South | 53.8 | 52.3 | 54.5 | 52.9 | 53.2 |
| Midwest | 17.1 | 19.3 | 16.3 | 18.7 | 18.1 |
| Northeast | 16.9 | 18.1 | 16.4 | 17.8 | 17.8 |
| West | 12.1 | 10.4 | 12.9 | 10.7 | 10.9 |
| Non-teaching | 65.0 | 64.3 | 65.4 | 64.9 | 63.8 |
| Urban status† § | 83.5 | 82.8 | 83.8 | 82.6 | 84.1 |
↵* 9161 of 10 070 (90.8%) β-blocker treated cases matched.
↵† Indicates statistically significant differences between treated and untreated groups in full cohort (p value<0.05).
↵‡ Kruskal-Wallis tests (p value<0.05).
↵§ Indicates statistically significant difference between treated and untreated groups in propensity-matched cohort (p value<0.05).
↵** Antibiotics included: aminoglycosides, other anti-infectives, sulfonamides, anti-MRSA medications, arbapenems, cephalosporins, macrolides, penicillins, quinolones, tetracyclines.
Additional characteristics and comorbidities evaluated in the model but not reported in the table include insurance payer, paralysis, liver disease, AIDS, lymphoma, metastatic cancer, chronic blood loss anaemia, drug abuse, pulmonary embolism, pneumothorax, polycythaemia, psychoses, alcohol abuse, solid tumour without metastasis, weight loss, rheumatoid arthritis/collagen vascular disease, sleep apnoea, pulmonary circulation disease.
ACE, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors; AE-COPD, acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; ARB, angiotensin–renin blocker; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; MI, myocardial infarction; MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.