Clostridium Difficile-Associated Disease in U.S. Hospitals, 1993–2005

Excerpt

This Statistical Brief presents data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) on the trend in CDAD from 1993 to 2005 and provides details on CDAD hospitalizations for 2005. A recent evaluation of surveillance for CDAD in hospitals found high sensitivity (78%) and specificity (99.7%) when using International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD-9) codes. Although it is not possible to determine whether these infections originated in a healthcare setting or were community acquired, this report provides information on the national burden of CDAD in hospitalized patients, and describes the types of patients affected, and their associated outcomes in the hospital. All differences between estimates noted in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level or better.