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Observational Study
. 2024 Apr 1;39(12):e118.
doi: 10.3346/jkms.2024.39.e118.

Incidence of Clostridioides difficile Infections in Republic of Korea: A Prospective Study With Active Surveillance vs. National Data From Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service

Jieun Kim  1 , Rangmi Myung  2 , Bongyoung Kim  1 , Jinyeong Kim  3 , Tark Kim  4 , Mi Suk Lee  5 , Uh Jin Kim  6 , Dae Won Park  7 , Yeon-Sook Kim  8 , Chang-Seop Lee  9 , Eu Suk Kim  10 , Sun Hee Lee  11 , Hyun-Ha Chang  12 , Seung Soon Lee  13 , Se Yoon Park  1 , Hee Jung Choi  14 , Hye In Kim  15 , Young Eun Ha  16 , Yu Mi Wi  17 , Sungim Choi  18 , So Youn Shin  19 , Hyunjoo Pai  20
Affiliations
Observational Study

Incidence of Clostridioides difficile Infections in Republic of Korea: A Prospective Study With Active Surveillance vs. National Data From Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service

Jieun Kim et al. J Korean Med Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Since the emergence of hypervirulent strains of Clostridioides difficile, the incidence of C. difficile infections (CDI) has increased significantly.

Methods: To assess the incidence of CDI in Korea, we conducted a prospective multicentre observational study from October 2020 to October 2021. Additionally, we calculated the incidence of CDI from mass data obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) from 2008 to 2020.

Results: In the prospective study with active surveillance, 30,212 patients had diarrhoea and 907 patients were diagnosed with CDI over 1,288,571 patient-days and 193,264 admissions in 18 participating hospitals during 3 months of study period; the CDI per 10,000 patient-days was 7.04 and the CDI per 1,000 admission was 4.69. The incidence of CDI was higher in general hospitals than in tertiary hospitals: 6.38 per 10,000 patient-days (range: 3.25-12.05) and 4.18 per 1,000 admissions (range: 1.92-8.59) in 11 tertiary hospitals, vs. 9.45 per 10,000 patient-days (range: 5.68-13.90) and 6.73 per 1,000 admissions (range: 3.18-15.85) in seven general hospitals. With regard to HIRA data, the incidence of CDI in all hospitals has been increasing over the 13-year-period: from 0.3 to 1.8 per 10,000 patient-days, 0.3 to 1.6 per 1,000 admissions, and 6.9 to 56.9 per 100,000 population, respectively.

Conclusion: The incidence of CDI in Korea has been gradually increasing, and its recent value is as high as that in the United State and Europe. CDI is underestimated, particularly in general hospitals in Korea.

Keywords: Active Surveillance; Big Data; Clostridioides difficile Infection; Incidence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Geographic information of the participating hospitals. The size of the circle represents the population of each administrative district in 2020 by Korean Statistical Information Service.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. CDI incidence according to hospital type in Korea using data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) from 2008 to 2020: (A) per 10,000 patient-days, (B) per 1,000 admissions, (C) per 100,000 population years.
CDI = Clostridioides difficile infection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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