TABLE 1.

Demographic and clinical characteristics of hospitalized patients with mupirocin-susceptible and mupirocin-resistant MRSA strains, 1995 to 2004^a

Characteristic	Patients with mupirocin-susceptible MRSA	Patients with mupirocin-resistant MRSA	OR (95% CI)	P value
No. of patients	3,187	139
Median age (yr)	69.6	71.6		0.40
No. (%) males	1,918 (60)	91 (66)	1.2 (0.9-1.8)	0.26
No. (%) of patients of aboriginal ethnicity	92 (3)	20 (18)	6.3 (3.7-10.7)	<0.001
No. (%) of patients with community-associated MRSA	134 (6)	13 (14)	2.5 (1.4-4.6)	0.003
No. (%) of patients from the following region of country:
Eastb	162 (5)	2 (1)
Centralc	1,931 (61)	94 (68)
Westd	1,094 (34)	43 (31)		0.08
No. (%) of patients with MRSA infection	1,064 (33)	34 (24)	0.7 (0.5-1.1)	0.11
No. (%) of patients from whom MRSA was recovered from the following anatomic site:
Blood	186 (6)	2 (1)	0.24 (0.06-0.96)	0.03
Sputum	648 (20)	18 (13)	0.58 (0.35-0.96)	0.03
Urine	281 (9)	12 (9)	0.98 (0.53-1.78)	0.94
Surgical site	391 (12)	14 (10)	0.80 (0.46-1.40)	0.44
Skin or soft tissue	921 (29)	39 (28)	0.96 (0.66-1.40)	0.92
Nose	1,333 (42)	60 (43)	1.06 (0.75-1.49)	0.75
Perineum or groin	433 (14)	24 (17)	1.33 (0.85-2.09)	0.27
Other site	772 (24)	25 (18)	0.69 (0.44-1.07)	0.09

^aMupirocin susceptible, MIC ≤ 4 μg/ml; mupirocin resistant, MIC ≥ 512 μg/ml.

^bEast, provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland.

^cCentral, provinces of Quebec and Ontario.

^dWest, provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.