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- Title
Clostridium difficile infection in Alberta's long-term care facilities.
- Authors
Lindeman, Cliff; Leal, Jenine; Rusk, Alysha; Bush, Kathryn; Simmonds, Kimberley; Chandran, A. Uma; Henderson, Elizabeth
- Abstract
Background: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is prevalent in long-term care (LTC) facilities in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. However, to our knowledge, CDI surveillance in LTC facilities has not been documented provincially in Alberta or any other Canadian province. This study aims to identify the incidence of CDI in LTC facilities and describe the demographic characteristics of the affected population. Methods: Administrative data from 172 LTC facilities in Alberta, Canada, was obtained from April 1, 2012, and September 30, 2013. Results: The majority of LTC CDI cases were either residents who resided in a LTC facility for more than 72 hours and had no hospitalizations in the previous four weeks (65.7%), or residents who had a hospital visit between 72 hours and four weeks prior to their CDI case (30.3%). Fluid and electrolyte disorders, congestive heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmias were the most common co-morbidities. Approximately 30% of residents died within 60 days of their CDI episode. Conclusions: There is a need to implement routine surveillance to continue monitoring CDI in LTC facilities to assess these findings further and to evaluate changes over time in response to improvement initiatives related to CDI prevention and clinical management.
- Subjects
ALBERTA; CLOSTRIDIUM diseases; DEMOGRAPHY; CLINICAL pathology; EPIDEMICS; PROBABILITY theory; COMORBIDITY; DISEASE incidence; DATA analysis software
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Infection Control / Revue Canadienne de Prévention des Infections, 2017, Vol 32, Issue 2, p87
- ISSN
1183-5702
- Publication type
Article