Table 2.

Comparison of the fecal samples virulence gene and isolation results between children and adults groups

Age groups	Factors	Virulence genes*				χ2	P value	Isolation results				χ2	P value
		Positive (cases)	%	Negative (cases)	%			Positive (cases)	%	Negative (cases)	%
	Sex
Children	Male	68	66.67	379	62.13	0.769	0.380	26	60.47	421	62.93	0.105	0.746
	Female	34	33.33	231	37.87			17	39.53	248	37.07
Adults	Male	17	47.22	120	52.17	0.306	0.580	5	41.67	132	51.97	0.487	0.485
	Female	19	52.78	110	47.83			7	58.33	122	48.03
	Sentinel hospitals
Children	A	13	12.75	130	21.31	7.118	0.068	6	13.95	137	20.48	2.058	0.561
	B	59	57.84	352	57.70			29	67.44	382	57.10
	C	14	13.73	72	11.80			5	11.63	81	12.11
	D	16	15.68	56	9.19			3	6.98	69	10.31
Adults	A	5	13.89	80	34.78	6.250	0.012	0	0.00	85	33.46	5.902	0.015
	B	0	0.00	0	0.00			—	—	—	—
	C	0	0.00	0	0.00			—	—	—	—
	D	31	86.11	150	65.22			12	100	169	66.54
	Departments
Children	Internal Medicine	41	40.20	254	41.64	0.075	0.784	13	30.23	282	42.15	2.366	0.124
	Pediatric Clinic	61	59.80	356	58.36			30	69.77	387	57.85
Adults	Internal Medicine	36	100	230	100	—	—	12	100	254	100	—	—
	Pediatric Clinic	0	0.00	0	0.00			0	0.00	0	0.00
	Years
Children	2013	14	13.73	130	21.31	5.539	0.136	9	20.93	135	20.18	9.237	0.026
	2014	52	50.98	283	46.39			17	39.53	318	47.53
	2015	28	27.45	172	28.20			11	25.58	189	28.25
	2016	8	7.84	25	1.04			6	13.96	27	4.04
Adults	2013	4	11.11	28	12.17	1.440	0.487	4	33.33	28	11.02	5.983	0.066
	2014	31	86.11	183	79.57			8	66.67	206	81.10
	2015	1	2.78	19	8.26			0	0.00	20	7.88
	2016	0	0.00	0	0.00			0	0.00	0	0.00
	Fever
Children	Yes	47	46.08	248	40.66	1.059	0.303	19	44.19	276	41.26	0.143	0.705
	No	55	53.92	362	59.34			24	55.81	393	58.74
Adults	Yes	2	5.56	22	9.57	0.610	0.435	0	0.00	24	9.45	1.246	0.264
	No	34	94.44	208	90.43			12	100	230	90.55
	Vomit
Children	Yes	47	46.08	246	40.33	1.193	0.275	28	65.12	265	39.61	10.853	0.001
	No	55	53.92	364	59.67			15	34.88	404	60.39
Adults	Yes	3	8.33	31	13.48	0.739	0.390	0	0.00	34	13.39	1.842	0.175
	No	33	91.67	199	86.52			12	100	220	86.61
	Fecal property
Children	Watery stool	85	83.33	497	81.48	5.174	0.159	37	86.04	545	81.46	1.908	0.592
	Mucoid stool	17	16.67	85	13.93			6	13.96	96	14.35
	Rice water stool	0	0.00	22	3.61			0	0	22	3.29
	Blood stool	0	0.00	6	0.98			0	0	6	0.90
Adults	Watery stool	12	33.33	114	49.57	11.721	0.008	4	33.33	122	48.03	8.091	0.044
	Mucoid stool	12	33.33	86	37.39			3	25.00	95	37.40
	Rice water stool	2	5.56	2	0.87			1	8.34	3	1.18
	Blood stool	10	27.78	28	12.17			4	33.33	34	13.39
	Use antibiotics before hospitals
Children	Yes	3	2.94	15	2.46	0.082	0.774	2	4.65	16	2.39	0.837	0.360
	No	99	97.06	595	97.54			41	95.35	653	97.61
Adults	Yes	1	2.78	7	3.04	0.008	0.931	0	0.00	8	3.15	0.390	0.532
	No	35	97.22	223	96.96			12	100	246	96.85
	Diarrhea days before hospitals
Children	≤3 days	67	65.69	413	67.7	0.162	0.687	24	55.81	456	68.16	2.804	0.094
	>3 days	35	34.31	197	32.30			19	44.19	213	31.84
Adults	≤3 days	14	38.89	142	61.74	6.702	0.010	3	25.00	153	60.24	5.866	0.015
	>3 days	22	61.11	88	38.26			9	75.00	101	39.76
	Diarrhea times/per day
Children	≤5 times	59	57.84	307	50.33	3.502	0.174	29	67.44	337	50.37	9.686	0.008
	6–10 times	35	34.31	268	43.93			9	20.93	294	43.95
	>10 times	8	7.85	35	5.74			5	11.63	38	5.68
Adults	≤5 times	26	72.22	153	66.52	3.766	0.152	11	91.67	168	66.14	3.427	0.180
	6–10 times	7	19.44	70	30.43			1	8.33	76	11.36
	>10 times	3	8.34	7	3.05			0	0.00	10	22.50
	Vomit days before hospitals
Children	≤3 days	43	93.48	234	95.51	0.349	0.555	24	88.89	235	95.53	2.579	0.108
	>3 days	3	6.52	11	4.49			3	11.11	11	4.47
Adults	≤3 days	3	100	27	90.00	0.330	0.566	0	0.00	30	90.91	—	—
	>3 days	0	0.00	3	10.00			0	0.00	3	9.09
	Vomit times/per day
Children	≤5 times	35	76.09	196	80.33	0.372	0.542	21	75.00	213	80.38	0.455	0.500
	>5 times	11	23.91	48	19.67			7	25.00	52	19.62
Adults	≤5 times	3	100	26	83.87	0.567	0.451	0	0.00	29	85.29	—	—
	>5 times	0	0.00	5	16.13			0	0.00	5	14.71

^*The positive virulence gene indicated that at least one of tcdA or tcdB was positive.