Geographical Variability in the Likelihood of Bloodstream Infections Due to Gram-Negative Bacteria: Correlation with Proximity to the Equator and Health Care Expenditure

David Fisman, Eleni Patrozou, Yehuda Carmeli, Eli Perencevich, Ashleigh R Tuite, Leonard A Mermel and the Geographical Variability of Bacteremia Study Group

PLOS ONE, 2014, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Objective: Infections due to Gram-negative bacteria exhibit seasonal trends, with peak infection rates during warmer months. We hypothesized that the likelihood of a bloodstream infection due to Gram-negative bacteria increases with proximity to the equator. We tested this hypothesis and identified geographical, climatic and social factors associated with this variability. Design: We established a network of 23 international centers in 22 cities. Setting: De-identified results of positive blood cultures from 2007–2011 and data sources for geographic, climatic and socioeconomic factors were assembled for each center. Participants: Patients at the 23 centers with positive blood cultures. Main outcome: Due to variability in the availability of total culture volumes across sites, our primary outcome measure was the fraction of positive blood cultures that yielded Gram-negative bacteria; sources of variability in this outcome measure were explored using meta-regression techniques. Results: The mean fraction of bacteremia associated with Gram-negative bacteria was 48.4% (range 26.4% to 61.8%). Although not all sites displayed significant seasonality, the overall P-value for seasonal oscillation was significant (P

Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0114548 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 14548&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0114548

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114548

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().