[Relationship between epidemiological evidence and fatality rate in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To investgate the relationship between epidemiological diagnosis and fatality rate in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). METHODS: Epidemiological evidences and the outcomes of 304 patients with confirmed SARS were retrospectively analyzed. Patients included highly contagious cases, cluster cases, and sporadic cases. RESULTS: The case fatality rate was 8.2%. The fatality rate had a tendency of increase in an order of sporadic cases, cluster cases, and highly contagious cases (3.9%, 11.4%, and 17.2%, respectively, chi2trend=7.561, P < 0.01). Chi square-test also proved that the fatality rate was higher in older people (chi2trend=27.024, P < 0.01) and in male (male vs female: 12.2% vs 5.5%). A logistic regression model showed that the epidemiological evidence, age, and gender were correlated to fatality rate. By observing changes of the odds ratio for epidemic evidence, age, and gender using forward method, we found epidemic evidence was an independent risk factor related to fatality rate in SARS patients. CONCLUSION: The epidemiological evidence is an independent factor related to fatality rate in SARS patients. Highly contagious case has a worse prognosis and higher fatality rate than sporadic cases and cluster cases.