Does Gender Impact Intensity of Care Provided to Older Medical Intensive Care Unit Patients?

Table 2

Factors related to time in ICU (𝑁=309).

Continuous Descriptors of ICU Stay	Men (𝑛=145)	Women (𝑛=164)	𝑃value^∗
	Median (IQR)	Median (IQR)
Therapeutic Intervention Score (TISS-28) Range: 9–50	25 (14)	26 (14)	Equivalent at 𝑃≤.05^∗∗∗∗
Days of stay in ICU (LOS)^∗∗; Range: 1–51	4 (5)	4.5 (4.5)	.38
Days of Intubation in ICU; Range: 1–48	6 (8)	5 (6)	.69
	Men (𝑛=145)	Women (𝑛=164)	𝑃value^∗
	𝑛 (%)	𝑛 (%)
ICU Mortality	20 (14)	33 (20)	.14
ICU Delirium	110 (77)	129 (80)	.50
ICU readmission	13 (9)	16 (10)	.81
Intubation	78 (54)	89 (54)	.93
Use of vasopressor medications (Dopamine, dobutamine, norepinephrine,; epinephrine, phenylephrine, vasopressin)	54 (17)	77 (25)	.0848
Tracheostomy	8 (5)	7 (4)	.61
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) or BiLevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP)	30 (21)	42 (26)	.31
Pulmonary Artery Catheterization	10 (7)	19 (12)	.16
Enteral Nutrition (Nasogastric Tube or Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube)	53 (37)	60 (37)	.99
Hemodialysis	7 (5)	10 (6)	.62
Continuous Veno-Venous Hemofiltration (CVVH)	5 (3)	8 (5)	.53
Change in code status to “Less aggressive”	37 (26)	45 (27)	.70

†Missing data present for some subjects. For ICU delirium missing=5.
∗Chi-square tests for categorical variables and Wilcoxon rank sum tests for continuous variables were used with statistical significance defined as 𝑃 value≤.05.
∗∗Length of stay was for first admission.
∗∗∗Delirium was defined by either positive ICU Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) or chart indication of delirium during ICU stay.
∗∗∗∗A nonparametric test of equivalence rejects the null hypothesis that men and women are not equivalent at significance level 0.05 for equivalence limits of ±15% around median value. IQR (Interquartile Range, i.e., central fifty percent distribution).