Physicians’ utilization of microbiologic reports and determinants of their preference to order culture in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Table 1 Socio-demographic and disease related characteristics of hospitalized patients with systemic bacterial infection in the internal medicine ward of TASH in 2014, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Variables	Frequency (N = 369)	Percent (%)
Age groups (years)
≤ 17	27	7.3
18–64	287	77.8
≥ 65	55	14.9
Average age of patient ± SD (range)	39.8 ± 18.5 (10–85)
Sex of patient
Female	191	51.7
Male	178	48.2
In hospital length of stay	Median 14 days (range 3–60 days)
Setting
Medical ICU	42	11.4
Internal medicine	327	88.6
Admission diagnosis
Infectious	269	72.90
Circulatory	123	33.33
Neoplasm	100	27.10
Signs and symptoms of disease^a	99	26.83
Endocrine and metabolic	40	10.84
Digestive	30	8.13
Genitourinary	25	6.78
Blood related	26	7.05
Respiratory	27	7.32
Other diagnosis^b	27	7.32

SD standard deviation
^aBased on International Classification of Disease (ICD 10) criteria referrers to the signs and symptoms of the underlying disease (e.g. hemiparesis, secondary to hypertension) that was not classified elsewhere under the primary admission diagnosis but which were the primary reasons for admission
^bDrug adverse outcomes (9), seizure/epilepsy (4), gynecology (3), arthritis (2), communicable hydrocephalus (1) cholestatic calculi (1), and injury (2)

ISSN: 1756-0500