CDI Incidence on the Rise in Hospitals, with Little to No Improvement in Mortality

​The incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) among hospitalized adults in the United States nearly doubled from 2001 to 2010, according to the results of a study published in the October 2014 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control. The study, which conducted a retrospective analysis of the U.S. National Hospital Discharge Surveys from 2001 to 2010, found that for approximately 2.2 million adult hospital discharges for CDI over the study period, CDI incidence increased from 4.5 CDI discharges per 1,000 total adult discharges in 2001 to 8.2 CDI discharges per 1,000 total adult discharges in 2010. Furthermore, the data indicated little evidence of improvement in patient mortality or hospital length of stay.