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1Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Health Insurance Service, Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea
2Department of Laboratory Medicine and Research Institute of Bacterial Resistance, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Gangneung Asan Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Gangneung, Korea
*Corresponding author: Tel: +82-31-5189-8695, Fax: +82-31-5189-8661, E-mail: hjkim12@yuhs.ac
Background: The incidence of community-associated (CA) Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) has increased in Korea. In this study, we evaluated CA-CDI risk factors in terms of clinical features and ribotype considering its region-specific molecular epidemiology.
Methods: A retrospective case-control study was performed on two groups of CDI patients: 127 subjects with CA-CDI and 265 subjects with healthcare-associated (HA)-CDI. Risk factors for CA-CDI were evaluated in terms of clinical and microbiological features such as toxin type and ribotype.
Results: A comparison of the two groups of CDI patients revealed that inflammatory bowel disease, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever were more closely associated with CA-CDI. The toxin types and ribotypes of C. difficile were similar between the two groups. After adjusting for variables, no risk factors were identified for CA-CDI compared with HA-CDI.
Conclusion: Specific risk factors for CA-CDI were not identified in this study.