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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

A Protocol to Characterize the Morphological Changes of Clostridium difficile in Response to Antibiotic Treatment
Published on: May 25, 2017
Correlation between hospital-level antibiotic consumption and incident health care facility-onset Clostridium
Page E Crew1, Nathaniel J Rhodes1, J Nicholas O'Donnell1
1Department of Pharmacy Practice, Chicago College of Pharmacy, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, IL; Department of Pharmacy, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL.
Background:
The purpose of this single-center, ecologic study is to characterize the relationship between facility-wide (FacWide) antibiotic consumption and incident health care facility-onset Clostridium difficile infection (HO-CDI).
Methods:
FacWide antibiotic consumption and incident HO-CDI were tallied on a monthly basis and standardized, from January 2013 through April 2015. Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients were calculated using matched-months analysis and a 1-month delay. Regression analyses were performed, with P < .05 considered statistically significant.
Results:
FacWide analysis identified a matched-months correlation between ceftriaxone and HO-CDI (ρ = 0.44, P = .018). A unit of stem cell transplant recipients did not have significant correlation between carbapenems and HO-CDI in matched months (ρ = 0.37, P = .098), but a significant correlation was observed when a 1-month lag was applied (ρ = 0.54, P = .014).
Discussion:
Three statistically significant lag associations were observed between FacWide/unit-level antibiotic consumption and HO-CDI, and 1 statistically significant nonlagged association was observed FacWide. Antibiotic consumption may convey extended ward-level risk for incident CDI.
Conclusions:
Consumption of antibiotic agents may have immediate and prolonged influence on incident CDI. Additional studies are needed to investigate the immediate and delayed associations between antibiotic consumption and C difficile colonization, infection, and transmission at the hospital level.
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