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Updated: May 6, 2026

Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291
Published on: December 10, 2016
All-cause mortality in hospitalized patients with infectious diarrhea: Clostridium difficile versus other enteric
D Schmid1, H W Kuo1, E Simons1
1Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Währingerstr. 25a, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Background:
Clostridium difficile infection is the leading cause of gastroenteritis-associated deaths in the industrialized world, followed by infection with norovirus.
Methods:
Using a cohort study design, we compared 90 inpatients with diarrhea due to C. difficile infection (CDI) with 180 inpatients with diarrhea due to other infectious agents (including 55% with norovirus infection) with respect to complications and all-cause mortality. The effects of age, severity of underlying diseases and additional infections were assessed by stratified analyses.
Results:
Diarrhea recurrence occurred 8.9 (95%CI: 2.9-27.3) times more often in CDI independent of age and severity of comorbidities. The all-cause mortality in CDI patients pre-discharge and at 30 and 180 days, respectively, was 20.0%, 17.0% and 42.3% versus 7.2%, 6.7% and 22.5% in non-CDI diarrhea patients. Among those patients with low comorbidities, who were younger than 65 years and without additional infections, the all-cause pre-discharge, 30-day and 180-day mortality risks were significantly higher for the CDI diarrhea patients than the non-CDI diarrhea patients. This association was not observed among patients with an older age, more severe comorbidities or additional infections.
Conclusion:
CDI results in higher all-cause mortality than diarrhea due to other infectious agents in younger patients with low comorbidities.
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