Assessing the risk and disease burden of Clostridium difficile infection among patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia at a University Hospital in Central China

PURPOSE: Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) remains one of the major hospital-acquired infections in China. Antibiotic treatment of HAP may lead to subsequent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Baseline data on the occurrence of CDI among HAP patients in China are currently unavailable. This study examines the risk and disease burden of CDI among HAP hospitalized patients (HAP-CDI). METHODS: We conducted a prospective study among ICU patients with HAP and hospital-onset diarrhea from January 2014 to December 2014 in a teaching hospital in China. All stool specimens were cultured for C. difficile which were typed by MLST. We used univariate and multivariable regression analyses to identify risk factors of HAP-CDI. FINDINGS: In total, 369 patients who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Thirty-two patients tested C. difficile positive. Among the isolated C. difficile strains, 90.63% (29/32) isolates were toxinogenic. Various MLST types were identified. The incidence of HAP-CDI was 11.67/10,000 patient days (95% CI, 7.97–16.55). Nineteen patients died from complications. The attributable mortality rate was 5.15% (19/369). The mortality rate of HAP-CDI group was 13.79% which was higher than HAP-non-CDI group. Univariate analyses demonstrated that old age, receiving antibiotics (OR = 8.70) and glucocorticoids (OR = 7.71) 1 month prior to hospitalization, respiratory failure (OR = 3.28) and receiving antimicrobials during hospitalization (OR = 1.15) were the risk factors associated with CDI. Multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis demonstrated the similar results. CONCLUSION: CDI was common among patients discharged from hospital for HAP at a university hospital. Prevention of the spreading of C. difficile among hospitalized patients is urgently needed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s15010-017-1024-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.