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The impact of intensive staff education on rate of Clostridium difficile-associated disease in hospitalized geriatric patients

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Abstract

Background

Toxin-producing Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of nosocomial diarrhea in geriatric units.

Aim

The purpose of study was to check the impact of intensive staff education on rate of Clostridium difficile-associated disease in hospitalized geriatric patients.

Methods

The sampling frame was all patients suffering from diarrhea checked for Clostridium difficile toxin during the years 2017–2018. Clostridium difficile-positive patients were compared to a similar number of Clostridium difficile toxin-negative patients. The data were compared to our previous study, followed by medical staff’s educational program for Clostridium difficile control and prevention.

Results

Among 217 patients with diarrhea, 60 (27.6%) were positive for Clostridium difficile toxin. The study group tended to be of older age (p = 0.06), and showed higher rate of functional impairment (p < 0.001) and mortality (p < 0.001) than Clostridium difficile toxin negative patients. The rate of Clostridium difficile toxin-positive patients did not significantly differ between the previous and current studies (20.0% and 27.6%, respectively).

Conclusions and discussion

In spite of findings, that patients tended to be older, with high rate of mortality, the rate of Clostridium difficile did not change from the previous study.

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Funding

No funding in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Internal Medicine Department, The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    G. Goltsman, E. H. Mizrahi & Emily Lubart

  2. Internal Medicine G Department, Asaf Harofeh Medical Center, Zerifin, 70300, Israel

    G. Goltsman

  3. School of Behavioral Sciences, Tel Aviv-Yaffo Academic College, Jaffa, Israel

    G. Gal

  4. Acute Geriatric Department A, Shmuel Harofe Geriatric Medical Center, POB 2, Be’er Ya’akov, Israel

    E. H. Mizrahi, S. Mardanov, E. Pinco & Emily Lubart

Authors
  1. G. Goltsman
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  2. G. Gal
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  3. E. H. Mizrahi
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  4. S. Mardanov
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  5. E. Pinco
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  6. Emily Lubart
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emily Lubart.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional ethics committee (The Helsinki cometee of Shmuel Harofe geriatric medical center, protocol number SH51\2017) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was not need. We used medical records only.

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Goltsman, G., Gal, G., Mizrahi, E.H. et al. The impact of intensive staff education on rate of Clostridium difficile-associated disease in hospitalized geriatric patients. Aging Clin Exp Res 32, 2393–2398 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01424-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01424-y

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