Predictors of Toxigenic C. difficile Carriage

The following potential predictive variables for toxigenic C. difficile carriage or CDI were collected from a computerized hospital database for each patient: age, sex, comorbid conditions, history of procedures or operations over the past month, receipt of proton-pump inhibitors or immunosuppressants, exposure to a medical environment, antibiotic use for more than 3 days over the past month, diagnosis on admission, intensive care unit stay over the past month, and multidrug-resistant microorganisms isolated from clinical specimens during hospitalization. Diarrhea was defined as the passage of three or more loose or liquid stools per day. An asymptomatic carrier was defined as a person infected with C. difficile, detected by PCR, without diarrhea.
The study was approved by our hospital’s institutional review board [2022AN0356]. Since the clinical data were obtained through a routine hospital surveillance program for infection control and antimicrobial stewardship, the requirement for informed consent was waived.