Table 2.

Univariate and multivariate analyses of toxigenic C. difficile carriage identified by PCR

Characteristic	PCR positive Mean ± standard deviation	PCR negative Mean ± standard deviation	P value (univariate analysis) (*significant)	Odds ratio (multivariate analysis) (95% confidence interval)
Age	80.49 ± 8.93	78.54 ± 7.20	0.123
Day of stool sample (day after admission)	2.58 ± 1.68	2.42 ± 1.64	0.568
Length of stay in days	17.14 ± 8.25	16.29 ± 6.41	0.454
Number hospital stays past 6 months	2.07 ± 1.22	1.32 ± 1.00	<0.001*	1.6 times per hospital stay (1.1–2.2)
Length hospital stays past 6 months	39.88 ± 26.43	22.47 ± 26.39	<0.001*	a
Mini Mental State Examination	25.19 ± 4.99	25.10 ± 5.06	0.920
Barthel Index	47.38 ± 23.48	50.86 ± 23.95	0.390
Timed Up & Go	27.81 ± 11.57	23,38 ± 10.83	0.084
Charlson CM Index	3.91 ± 2.71	3.12 ± 2.25	0.044*	b
Handgrip Strength	36.95 ± 13.68	41.24 ± 16.62	0.123
BMI	24.65 ± 6.20	26.22 ± 7.98	0.224
Characteristic	PCR positive Women/Men	PCR negative Women/Men	P value (univariate analysis) (*significant)	Odds ratio (multivariate analysis) (95% confidence interval)
Sex	65.1%/34.9%	62.3%/37.7%	0.726
Characteristic	PCR positive Yes/No	PCR negative Yes/No	P value (univariate analysis) (*significant)	Odds ratio (multivariate analysis) (95% confidence interval)
Immunosuppression	14.0%/86.0%	15.6%/84.4%	0.790
Residence care facility	18.6%/81.4%	6.6%/93.4%	0.010*	b
Previous treatment with antibiotics  past 6 months	93.0%/7.0%	60.8%/39.2%	<0.001*	3.7 times (1.0–13.9)
Previous episodes of CDI	11.6%/88.4%	0.9%/99.1%	<0.001*	12.3 times (1.9–81.6)
PPI premedication	76.7%/23.3%	62.3%/37.7%	0.071
“Post–Sugery” hospital stay	53.5%/46.5%	21.2%/78.8%	<0.001*	3.5 times (1.4–8.8)

^alength of hospital stay correlated by R = 0.58 to the variable “number of hospital stays” and was therefore excluded from the final multivariate model

^bnot statistically significant in the multivariate model