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Observational Study
. 2016 May 1;44(5):548-53.
doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2015.12.001. Epub 2016 Jan 25.

Prevalence of probiotic use among inpatients: A descriptive study of 145 U.S. hospitals

Sarah H Yi  1 , John A Jernigan  2 , L Clifford McDonald  2
Affiliations
Observational Study

Prevalence of probiotic use among inpatients: A descriptive study of 145 U.S. hospitals

Sarah H Yi et al. Am J Infect Control. .

Abstract

Background: To inform clinical guidance, public health efforts, and research directions, probiotic use in U.S. health care needs to be better understood. This work aimed to assess the prevalence of inpatient probiotic use in a sample of U.S. hospitals.

Methods: Probiotic use among patients discharged in 2012 was estimated using the MarketScan Hospital Drug Database. In addition, the annual trend in probiotic use (2006-2012) was assessed among a subset of hospitals.

Results: Among 145 hospitals with 1,976,167 discharges in 2012, probiotics were used in 51,723 (2.6%) of hospitalizations occurring in 139 (96%) hospitals. Patients receiving probiotics were 9 times more likely to receive antimicrobials (P < .0001) and 21 times more likely to have a Clostridium difficile infection diagnosis (P < .0001). The most common probiotic formulations were Saccharomyces boulardii (32% of patients receiving probiotics), Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (30%), L acidophilus (28%), and Lactobacillus rhamnosus (11%). Probiotic use increased from 1.0% of 1,090,373 discharges in 2006 to 2.9% of 1,006,051 discharges in 2012 (P < .0001).

Conclusions: In this sample of U.S. hospitals, a sizable and growing number of inpatients received probiotics as part of their care despite inadequate evidence to support their use in this population. Additional research is needed to guide probiotic use in the hospital setting.

Keywords: Bifidobacterium; Dietary supplement; Lactobacillus; Probiotic; Saccharomyces; hospital; microbial; prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None to report.

Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Trend in probiotic use among 60 U.S. hospitals reporting annually, HDD, 2006-2012. Corresponding data table is displayed in Supplemental Table S7. HDD, MarketScan Hospital Drug Database; 4 species formulation consists of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Streptococcus thermophilus,Lactobacillus paracasei, and Bifidobacterium animalis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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