Table 1.

Characteristics of discharges with and without probiotic use during hospitalization, HDD 2012

Variable	Value	Probiotic	No probiotic	P value
Discharges, n		51,723	1,924,444
Hospitals, n		139	145
Patient characteristics
Age category, %	0 y	1.1	10.3	<.0001
	1-17 y	2.4	2.7
	18-64 y	34.4	48.4
	65-84 y	44.5	29.6
	≥85 y	17.7	9.1
Sex, %	Male	42.2	42.9	.0021
	Female	57.8	57.1
Principal payer, %	Medicare	67.4	42.4	<.0001
	Medicaid	9.7	20.0
	Private	15.9	26.2
	Other	2.8	3.3
	Self-pay	4.1	7.7
	No charge	<0.1	0.1
	Unknown	0.1	0.4
Hospital characteristics
Census region, %	Northeast	0.7	0.3	<.0001
	Midwest	12.6	19.2
	South	76.5	65.5
	West	10.1	14.9
Urban-rural, %	Rural	14.6	11.3	<.0001
	Urban	85.4	88.7
Bed category, %	1-199 beds	23.6	21.9	<.0001
	200-299 beds	21.0	19.1
	300-499 beds	33.3	32.2
	≥500 beds	22.1	26.8
Teaching		4.3	9.6	<.0001
Hospitalization characteristics
Admission type, %	Elective, routine	12.2	21.4	<.0001
	Emergency admit	67.5	50.3
	Newborn delivery	0.5	9.6
	Other	0.4	0.6
	Urgent	19.4	18.1
Admission source, %	Inpatient health care facility	9.0	6.5	<.0001
	Referral	90.0	83.0
	Newborn	0.5	9.6
	Other	1.0	1.0
Discharge disposition, %	Transferred to another health care facility	32.7	14.5	<.0001
	Discharged to home	63.9	82.4
	Left against medical advice	0.5	1.0
	Died	2.8	1.9
	Missing	0.1	0.2
Length of stay, d	Mean	8.8	4.4	<.0001
	Median	6.0	3.0
Charge, $	Mean	63,732	34,130	<.0001
	Median	35,570	20,459
Any stay in ICU, %		37.2	26.2	<.0001
CDI diagnosis, %	Primary code (ICD-9-CM code: 008.45)	5.3	0.2	<.0001
	Secondary code	7.2	0.4	<.0001
	Any code	12.5	0.7	<.0001
Antimicrobial use, %		91.9	57.1	<.0001

CDI, Clostridium difficile infection; HDD, MarketScan Hospital Drug Database; ICU, intensive care unit.