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C. diff rates show first drop in decade
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 13, 2012
The rate of patients hospitalized with the Clostridium difficile infection fell for the first time after more than a decade of increases, according to data reported in January by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The improvement comes as more hospitals enact policies aimed at curbing unnecessary antibiotic prescribing.
Rates of C. diff, which causes severe diarrhea and is frequently a side effect of antibiotic use, nearly tripled from 47.6 per 100,000 hospital patients in 1996 to 114.6 per 100,000 in 2008. But that rate dropped 4.3% to 109.6 per 100,000 in 2009, the most recent year of data included in the report (link).
The average age of hospital patients with C. diff is nearly 70, compared with the average of 48 for all hospital patients. Two-thirds of the patients with C. diff were on Medicare, and rates were higher among females and in hospitals in the Northeast, AHRQ said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/02/13/prbf0213.htm.
