Ann Clin Microbiol.  2022 Jun;25(2):53-58. 10.5145/ACM.2022.25.2.3.

Clinical and Microbiological Risk Factors for Community-Associated Clostridioides difficile Infections

• Kim YA
• Kim H
• Kim D
• Liu C
• Jeong SH

• KMID: 2530723
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2022.25.2.3

Abstract

Background
The incidence of community-associated (CA) Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) has increased in Korea. In this study, we evaluated CA-CDI risk factors in terms of clinical features and ribotype considering its region-specific molecular epidemiology.
Methods
A retrospective case-control study was performed on two groups of CDI patients: 127 subjects with CA-CDI and 265 subjects with healthcare-associated (HA)-CDI. Risk factors for CA-CDI were evaluated in terms of clinical and microbiological features such as toxin type and ribotype.
Results
A comparison of the two groups of CDI patients revealed that inflammatory bowel disease, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever were more closely associated with CA-CDI. The toxin types and ribotypes of C. difficile were similar between the two groups. After adjusting for variables, no risk factors were identified for CA-CDI compared with HA-CDI.
Conclusion
Specific risk factors for CA-CDI were not identified in this study.

Keyword

Clostridioides difficile infection; Community-associated; Risk factor