There is an ongoing controversy regarding whether single-occupancy rooms are superior to multiple-occupancy rooms in terms of infection prevention, according to Jo, et al. (2024) who investigated whether treatment in a multiple-occupancy room is associated with an increased incidence of nosocomial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with treatment in a single-occupancy room.

In this retrospective cohort study, every hospitalization period of adult patients aged ≥ 18 years at a tertiary hospital in Korea from Jan. 1, 2022, to Dec. 31, 2022, was analyzed. If COVID-19 was diagnosed more than five days after hospitalization, the case was classified as nosocomial. The researchers estimated the association between the number of patients per room and the risk of nosocomial COVID-19 using a Cox proportional hazards regression model.

In total, 25,143 hospitalizations per room type were analyzed. The incidence rate of nosocomial COVID-19 increased according to the number of patients per room; it ranged from 3.05 to 38.64 cases per 10,000 patient-days between single- and six-bed rooms, respectively. Additionally, the hazard ratios of nosocomial COVID-19 showed an increasing trend according to the number of patients per room, ranging from 0.14 (95% confidence interval 0.001–1.03) to 2.66 (95% confidence interval 1.60–4.85) between single- and six-bed rooms, respectively.

The researchers say they demonstrated that the incidence of nosocomial COVID-19 increased according to the number of patients per room. To reduce nosocomial infections by respiratory viruses, the use of multiple-occupancy rooms should be minimized.

Source: Jo HJ, et al. Risk of nosocomial coronavirus disease 2019: comparison between single- and multiple-occupancy rooms. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control. Volume 13, article number 95 (2024).