ACE-inhibitor use and pneumonia risk in a general, essentially white Caucasian population

¹ Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Dept of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacotherapy; and St. Antonius Hospital, Dept of Clinical Pharmacy
² Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Dept of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacotherapy
³ St. Antonius Hospital, Dept of Pulmonary Diseases
⁴ St. Antonius Hospital, Dept of Clinical Pharmacy

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: e.m.w.vandegarde{at}pharm.uu.nl.

	Abstract

To assess whether use of ACE-inhibitors is associated with a decreased risk of hospitalization for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in a general, essentially white Caucasian population.

Data were obtained from the Dutch PHARMO Record Linkage System. Cases were defined as patients with a first hospital admission for CAP. For each case, up to 4 population controls were matched by age and gender.

The study population comprised 1,108 patients with a first hospital admission for CAP and 3,817 matched controls. After adjusting for several confounders, ACE-inhibitor use was not associated with a decreased incidence of pneumonia (adjusted OR 1.12; 95% CI 0.88 to 1.43). Additionally, no significant association was observed in patients with diabetes, patients with respiratory diseases, patients with heart failure, and patients with both of the last two conditions. Furthermore, adjustment of treatment effects on pneumonia risk using stratification on balancing score also showed no significant association between ACE-inhibitor use and pneumonia risk within the different strata (overall adjusted OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.36).

In contrast to previous findings in Asian populations, we were not able to confirm the beneficial effect of ACE-inhibitors on pneumonia risk in a general, essentially white Caucasian population.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Teramoto, H. Yamamoto, Y. Yamaguchi, Y. Hanaoka, M. Ishii, S. Hibi, and Y. Ouchi ACE inhibitors prevent aspiration pneumonia in Asian, but not Caucasian, elderly patients with stroke Eur. Respir. J., January 1, 2007; 29(1): 218 - 219. [Full Text] [PDF]