Table 2.

Prevalence of asymptomatic C. difficile colonization in different populations

Population type		Range of carriage rates	References
Healthy neonates and infants		18–90 %	[34, 110–113]
Healthy adults – general population		0–15 %	[15, 26–33]
Elderly in long-term care facilities, chronic care, or nursing homes		0–51 %	[9, 30, 37, 66, 67, 70, 114–116]
Hospital	Elderly	0.6–15 %	[26, 68, 69, 114, 117, 118]
	Inpatients (not specifically elderly)	4–29 %	[10, 13, 18, 22, 73, 79, 91, 105, 106, 109, 119–121]
	Rehabilitation (spinal)	11–50 %	[43, 45]
	HIV	4 %	[122]
	Healthcare workers	0–13 %	[26, 32, 123]
	Cystic fibrosis	18–47 %	[38–41]
	Hospital surgical patients on antibiotic prophylaxis	17 %	[124]
	Intensive care	7 %	[125]
	IBD (ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease)	11 %	[95]
	Hematological malignancies	8 %	[94]