Article Text
LETTER
Inter-unit comparisons are flawed
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Mortality from meningococcal septic shock may be falling; however, it is difficult to be sure. Inter-unit comparisons of the sort precipitated by these articles and correspondence are inevitably distorted by confounding factors. These factors are not entirely removed by the use of mortality prediction models.
Historically, mortality data for meningococcal septicaemia from the UK Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre have always shown a lower mortality rate than that in many paediatric intensive care units. However, the comparison is regarded as inappropriate …