Association of baseline steroid use with long-term rates of infection and sepsis in the REGARDS cohort.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Prior studies associate steroid use with infection risk but were limited to select populations and short follow-up periods. The association of steroid use with long-term risk of community-acquired infections is unknown. We sought to determine the association of steroid risk with long-term risks of community- acquired infections and sepsis.

Methods

We used data on 30,239 adults aged ≥ 45 years old from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort. The primary exposure was oral or injectable steroid use, determined from medication inventory obtained at baseline in-home visit. The primary outcome was time to first infection event during 2003-2012, determined through adjudicated review of hospital records. We determined associations bet

SUBMITTER: Chaudhary NS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5508766 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature