Assessment of Racial, Ethnic, and Sex-Based Disparities in Time-to-Antibiotics and Sepsis Outcomes in a Large Multihospital Cohort

OBJECTIVES: To characterize associations between race/ethnicity/sex, time-to-antibiotics, and mortality in patients with suspected sepsis or septic shock. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study, with race/ethnicity/sex as the exposure, and time-to-antibiotics (relative to emergency department arrival) and in-hospital mortality as the outcome. SETTING: Five Massachusetts hospitals. PATIENTS: Forty-nine thousand six hundred nine adults admitted 2015–2022 with suspected sepsis or septic shock (blood cultures drawn and IV antibiotics administered within 24 hr of arrival, plus evidence of organ dysfunction for sepsis, and hypotension or lactate ≥ 4.0 mmol/L for septic shock). INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Among included patients, 22,598 (46%) were women, 36,626 (75%) were White, and 4,483 (9.2%) were Black. Women had longer median time-to-antibiotics than men when presenting with either suspected sepsis (203 vs. 190 min) or septic shock (160 vs. 142 min). Differences in time-to-antibiotics for women vs. men persisted after adjusting for age, race, comorbidities, source of infection, and severity of illness (adjusted odds ratio aOR for 3–6 vs. < 3 hr; 1.16 95% CI, 1.07–1.25 for sepsis and aOR, 1.09 95% CI, 1.01–1.18 for septic shock). Median time-to-antibiotics was also longer for Black vs. White patients for both sepsis (215 vs. 194 min; aOR for 3–6 vs. < 3 hr; 1.24 95% CI, 1.06–1.45) and septic shock (median 159 vs. 148 min; aOR, 1.32 95% CI, 1.12–1.55). There was no association between race/ethnicity/sex and in-hospital mortality for sepsis without shock; however, women with septic shock had higher mortality (aOR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.04–1.29) vs. men. Higher mortality for women with septic shock persisted when also adjusting for time-to-antibiotics (aOR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.03–1.32). CONCLUSIONS: In a large cohort of patients with sepsis, time-to-antibiotics was longer for both women and Black patients even after detailed risk-adjustment. Women with septic shock had higher adjusted in-hospital mortality than men, but this association was not moderated by time-to-antibiotics.