CDI Cases More Likely to be Readmitted to the Hospital, Increasing Costs and Mortality

Under a low magnification of 4.8X, this photograph depicts three Clostridium difficile bacterial colonies, after undergoing a 48 hour incubation period, and cultivated on a blood agar plate. Courtesy of the CDC

Clostridiodies difficile infection (CDI) has been characterized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an urgent public health threat and a major concern in hospital, outpatient and extended-care facilities worldwide.

Hirsch, et al. (2022) conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients aged ≥ 18 hospitalized with CDI in New York state (NYS) between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2016. Data were extracted from NY Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative (SPARCS) and propensity score matching was performed to achieve comparability of the CDI (exposure) and non-CDI (non-exposure) groups. Of the 3,714,486 hospitalizations, 28,874 incidence CDI cases were successfully matched to 28,874 non-exposures.

The matched pairs comparison demonstrated that CDI cases were more likely to be readmitted to the hospital at 30 (28.26% vs. 19.46%), 60 (37.65% vs. 26.02%), 90 (42.93% vs. 30.43) and 120 days (46.47% vs. 33.74), had greater mortality rates at 7 (3.68% vs. 2.0%) and 180 days (20.54% vs. 11.96%), with significant increases in length of stay and total hospital charges (p < .001, respectively).

The researchers concluded that CDI is associated with a large burden on patients and healthcare systems, significantly increasing hospital utilization, costs and mortality.

Reference: Hirsch BE, et al. Healthcare consequences of hospitalization with Clostrioides difficile infection: a propensity score matching study. BMC Infectious Diseases. Vol. 22, article number 620 (2022).