Event rates for 30-day hospital encounter with ventricular arrhythmia and all-cause mortality in a matched cohort of patients prescribed macrolide and nonmacrolide antibiotics
| Outcome | No. (%) of patients | Relative risk (95% CI) | p value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macrolide n = 503 612 | Nonmacrolide n = 503 612 | |||
| Ventricular arrhythmia* | 134 (0.03) | 126 (0.03) | 1.06 (0.83–1.36) | 0.6 |
| All-cause mortality | 3144 (0.62) | 3833 (0.76) | 0.82 (0.78–0.86) | < 0.001 |
Note: CI = confidence interval.
↵* Based on hospital presentation (emergency department or hospital admission) assessed by hospital diagnosis codes. This method of assessment underestimated the true number of events because ventricular arrhythmias frequently go undetected in routine health care (because they often occur outside of hospital settings, in unmonitored patients in hospital or in a setting of multiorgan medical illness in which recorded codes describe illnesses other than ventricular arrhythmia).