Abnormal vital signs are strong predictors for intensive care unit admission and in-hospital mortality in adults triaged in the emergency department - a prospective cohort study

Table 7 The univariate association between the number of abnormal vital signs, ICU admission and in-hospital mortality

Abnormal vital signs (N)	Patients (N)	Patients (%)	Admission to ICU			In-hospital mortality
			OR	CI	P	OR	CI	P
0	3916	74.9	1.0			1.0
1	1002	19.2	2.2	1.25-3.89	0.006	4.03	2.57-6.32	< 0.0001
2	244	4.7	13.03	7.64-22.23	< 0.0001	12.37	7.43-20.58	< 0.0001
3	57	1.1	15.99	6.76-37.77	< 0.0001	29.36	14.66-58.81	< 0.0001
4	11	0.2	No ITA			37.27	9.53-145.77	< 0.0001
5	0	0

ICU: intensive care unit; OR: odds ratio; CI: confidence interval
Illustrates cases with all 5 vital signs scored (SpO₂, RR, BP, HR and GCS). A total of 1096 (20%) patients had one or more of the 5 vital signs missing in the primary triage

ISSN: 1757-7241