Clostridium difficile infection in hospitalized octogenarian patients.

Aim: To evaluate the risk factors and outcome of <italic>Clostridium difficile</italic> infection in hospitalized octogenarian patients. Methods: A retrospective analysis of risk factors and outcome of <italic>C. difficile</italic> infection in hospitalized octogenarians was carried out at two academic centers in Romania from January 2014 to September 2016. Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics; antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors use in‐hospital and 2 months before admission; comorbidities; length of hospital stay; treatment; and outcome were carefully collected from the patients' medical charts and compared with those from octogenarians hospitalized during the same period. Results: A total of 286 octogenarians were hospitalized during the study period and among them 79 (27.6%) were diagnosed with <italic>C. difficile</italic> infection. On multivariate logistic regression analyses, the previous 2 months' hospitalizations (OR 10.231, 95% CI 1.769–58.965, <italic>P</italic> = 0.009), antibiotic use 2 months before admission (OR 12.596, 95% CI 1.024–15.494, <italic>P</italic> = 0.048), antibiotic treatment during hospitalization (OR 6.302, 95% CI 3.510–11.316, <italic>P</italic> < 0.0001), arterial hypertension (OR 11.228, 95% CI 1.917–65.783, <italic>P</italic> = 0.007), chronic kidney disease (OR 4.474, 95% CI 1.037–19.299, <italic>P</italic> = 0.045) and chronic cardiac failure (OR 7.328, 95% CI 2.068–25.967, <italic>P</italic> = 0.002) were independently associated with infection. Patients with infection had longer length of hospital stay than those without (15.3 ± 5.1 <italic>vs</italic> 11.1 ± 4.3 days, <italic>P</italic> < 0.0001). None of the patients with infection had severe disease, none required surgery and none died during hospitalization. Conclusions: Hospitalized octogenarians with comorbidities, recently hospitalized or receiving antibiotic treatment are at risk for <italic>C. difficile</italic> infection. Clinicians evaluating such patients should have a high index of suspicion for this infection. <bold>Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 315–320</bold>. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]