Long-term mortality in patients diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis: a Danish nationwide cohort study

The objective of the study was to determine the long-term mortality and the causes of death in patients diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis. The authors performed a nationwide, population-based cohort study including all Danish patients diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis from 1977 through 2006 and alive 1 year after diagnosis. Data were retrieved from medical databases in Denmark. The absolute and relative risks of all-cause and cause-specific death were analyzed by using Kaplan-Meier survival curves, Poisson regression analysis, Cox regression analysis, and cumulative incidence functions. The authors identified 2,131 pneumococcal meningitis patients and an age- and gender-matched, population-based cohort of 8,524 individuals. Compared with the background population, the pneumococcal meningitis patients had an increased long-term mortality varying from an 8-fold increased mortality in the age category 0-