Risk of pneumonia in patients with burn injury: a population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND: Burns are the main cause of accidental injury, and pneumonia is a common respiratory disease in humans. AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between burn injury and pneumonia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A nationwide population-based cohort study was conducted using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We identified and enrolled 2,893 subjects with burn injury, who were individually matched to 2,893 subjects in the comparison group by using the propensity score. Furthermore, we used a self-controlled case-series design to estimate the temporal association between burn injury and pneumonia. RESULTS: Exposure to burn injury revealed a higher risk of pneumonia than that to non-burn injury within 1 year. The Cox proportional hazards model revealed that, compared with the non-burn injury, burn injury yielded a 2.39-fold (95% CI=1.44–3.96) increase in risk of pneumonia. The exposure period of burn injury within 30 days showed 2.76-fold increase in risk of pneumonia (95% CI=1.44–3.96) compared with that in the baseline period. CONCLUSION: Burn injury was associated with a significant increased risk of pneumonia, especially occurring within 30 days.