Clostridium difficile Infection: An Emerging Cause of Death in the Twenty-First Century

Enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile is major emerging cause of death in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2012, C. diff. deaths rose by a staggering almost ten-fold amount, to 7,739 from 793. This article has three goals. First, we present a demographic description of C. diff. mortality in the U.S. since 1999. Second, we test a hypothesis that the increase in C. diff. deaths is due to population aging. We find that the emergence of this cause of death follows a proportional hazard pattern above age 40. Thus, population aging is not the only factor responsible for the increase in C. diff. deaths. This, combined with a contributory cause of death analysis, points towards health care-based strategies to combat C. diff. Third, we demonstrate a simple weighted least squares technique for estimating Gompertz models that gives parameter estimates that are closer to full maximum likelihood than conventional approaches.