Path analysis of Stroke Associated Pneumonia

Stroke associated pneumonia is sometimes known as aspiration pneumonia. This name aspiration pneumonia is unfortunate as it is assumed that pneumonia can be prevented by dysphagia screen. Yet, performing dysphagia screen and keeping patients Nil By Mouth on hospital admission in this study did not prevent them from having pneumonia. This point, that pneumonia occurred more often in patients kept Nil By Mouth, is not often acknowledged. It appears that prior studies on the subject have not explored the issue of confounders ie patients with severe stroke have dysphagia and pneumonia. Using a complex statistical method borrowed from Coalition game theory, our group have shown that the largest contributor to the model of pneumonia was stroke severity (72.8%) followed by Charlson comorbidity index (16.2%), dysphagia screen (3.8%), and age (7.2%). In this study we will extend our data collection for a further 2 years. The statistical analysis will involve causal path analysis.