What question did this study set out to answer?

To establish the incidence of and identify risk factors for community-associated Clostridium difficile infection across distinct regional cohorts.

January 31, 2008Journal of Antimicrobial ChemotherapyOpen Access

A case-control study of community-associated Clostridium difficile infection

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Authors

MWMark H. WilcoxNational Health Service LMLouise MooneyUniversity College Dublin RBRichard BendallAge UK

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Implication

Case-control study reveals community Clostridium difficile infection occurs frequently without prior antibiotics or hospitalization, indicating standard diagnostic criteria miss infections.

Key Points

To establish the incidence of and identify risk factors for community-associated Clostridium difficile infection across distinct regional cohorts.
Conducted prospective surveillance of community-derived fecal specimens for C. difficile cytotoxin.
Administered a questionnaire-based case-control evaluation across two cohorts (urban, median age 73; semi-rural, median age 45) assessing medical, medication, and exposure histories.
C. difficile cytotoxin was detected in 2.1% of community fecal samples across both the urban and semi-rural cohorts.
Infection was significantly associated with prior 4-week antibiotic exposure—particularly multiple agents (P < 0.001), aminopenicillins (P < 0.05), and oral cephalosporins (P < 0.05)—as well as 6-month hospitalization (45% vs 23%; P = 0.022) and contact with infants aged ≤2 years (14% vs 2%; P = 0.02).
Nearly half of cases lacked antibiotic exposure in the preceding month, approximately one-third had neither prior antibiotics nor hospitalization, and PCR ribotype 001 caused 60% of urban and 13% of semi-rural cases.

Cite This Study

Wilcox et al. (2008) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a7c6d190449e558d7c2f1ee https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkn163

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Implication

Case-control study reveals community Clostridium difficile infection occurs frequently without prior antibiotics or hospitalization, indicating standard diagnostic criteria miss infections.

A case-control study of community-associated Clostridium difficile infection

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

A case-control study of community-associated Clostridium difficile infection

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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