Impact of Guideline Adherence on Outcomes in Patients Hospitalized with Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in Hungary: A Retrospective Observational Study

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. This retrospective observational study evaluated the antibiotic prescription patterns and associations between guideline adherence and outcomes in patients hospitalized with CAP in Hungary. Main outcome measures were adherence to national and international CAP guidelines (agent choice, dose) when using empirical antibiotics, antibiotic exposure, and clinical outcomes. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with CAP in the 30-day mortality and 30-day survival groups were compared. Fisher's exact test and t-test were applied to compare categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Adherence to the national CAP guideline for initial empirical therapies was 30.61% (45/147) for agent choice and 88.89% (40/45) for dose. Average duration of antibiotic therapy for CAP was 7.13 +/- 4.37 (mean +/- SD) days, while average antibiotic consumption was 11.41 +/- 8.59 DDD/patient (range 1-44.5). Adherence to national guideline led to a slightly lower 30-day mortality rate than guideline non-adherence (15.56% vs. 16.67%, p > 0.05). In patients aged >= 85 years, 30-day mortality was 3 times higher than in those aged 65-84 years (30.43% vs. 11.11%). A significant difference was found between 30-day non-survivors and 30-day survivors regarding the average CRP values on admission (177.28 +/- 118.94 vs. 112.88 +/- 93.47 mg/L, respectively, p = 0.006) and CCI score (5.71 +/- 1.85 and 4.67 +/- 1.83, p = 0.012). We found poor adherence to the national and international CAP guidelines in terms of agent choice. In addition, high CRP values on admission were markedly associated with higher mortality in CAP.