Racial Differences in Mortality from Severe Acute Respiratory Failure in the United States, 2008-2012

Racial disparities in health and healthcare in the United States are well documented and are increasingly recognized in acute critical illnesses such as sepsis and acute respiratory failure.

Using a large, representative, U.S. nationwide database, we examined the hypothesis that black and Hispanic patients with severe acute respiratory failure have higher mortality rates when compared with non-Hispanic whites.

This retrospective analysis used discharge data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Nationwide Inpatient Sample, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, for the years 2008-2012. We identified hospitalizations with acute respiratory failure using a combination of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, codes. A logistic regression model was fitted to compare in-hospital mortality rates by race.

After adjusting for sex, age, race, disease severity, type of hospital, and median household income for patient ZIP code, blacks had a greater odds ratio of in-hospital death when compared with non-Hispanic whites (odds ratio [OR], 1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.14; P < 0.001), and Hispanics also had a greater odds ratio of in-hospital death when compared with non-Hispanic whites (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.15-1.19; P < 0.001), and so did Asian and Pacific Islanders (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.12-1.18; P < 0.001) and Native Americans (OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.00-1.15; P < 0.001) when compared with non-Hispanic whites (OR, 1.0).

Blacks, Hispanics, and other racial minorities in the United States were observed to exhibit significantly higher in-hospital sepsis-related respiratory failure associated mortality when compared with non-Hispanic whites.