Estimating the effect of practicing nursing professionals density on cumulative carbapenem-resistance prevalence in gram-negative invasive Isolates: a 30 European country observational modeling study

BACKGROUND: The burden of antimicrobial-resistance, specifically carbapenem-resistance in gram-negative bacteria (CRGN), presents a serious public health threat worldwide. In Europe, Southern and Eastern countries (SEC) display a higher CRGN-prevalence as compared to Northern and Western countries (NWC). Since SEC also display lower nurse-density on average, we hypothesized that the occurrence of CRGN might correlate with nurse understaffing and therefore aimed at quantifying a potential independent effect of nurse-density on total CRGN in Europe. METHODS: A 30-country cross-sectional study was conducted. Cumulative six-year CRGN-prevalence (2011–2016) in four gram-negative bacterial species was determined based on > 700 k clinical invasive isolates (EARS-net). We performed multivariable log-linear regression to provide estimations of the effect of nurse-density while adjusting to various health-system variables. RESULTS: Multivariable analysis (adj.-R(2) ~ 93%) suggested an average 0.4% [95%-CI 0.2–1.0%] CRGN-increase due to a decrement of one practicing nurse per week of hospital-stay of one population individual. Our modeling provided CRGN-estimations in two non-EARS-net countries (Switzerland and Turkey), which were almost equal to empirically estimated values (CAESAR-Network). Furthermore, a nurse-density-dependent moderation of the inter-species distribution balance was a likely pathway of the observed effect. These observations were specific for CRGN, in contrast to other resistance types in the same species. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first attempt of quantifying potential nurse-density effects on antimicrobial-resistance at national level. Our results suggest an increase in CRGN by decreasing nurse-density. Nurse-density is thus a novel factor that might improve our understanding of the unbalanced CRGN-distribution among sub-European regions. Consequently, integrating nurse-density in future AMR-policies could be beneficial. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13756-022-01076-0.