TABLE 3.
Distribution of sex, age, and department of employment by S. aureus nasal carrier state among 91 healthy adults repeatedly sampled for culture over a 10- to 12-week period in 1988
| Characteristic |
S. aureus nasal carrier statea
|
P | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noncarriage (n = 43) | Intermittent carriage (n = 15) | Persistent carriage (n = 33) | Overall (n = 91) | ||
| Male/female ratio | 0.6 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.30b |
| Age (yr) (mean [SD]) | 30.3 (9.5) | 28.2 (7.2) | 33.4 (8.2) | 31.0 (8.8) | 0.13c |
| Department (no. [%] of subjects) | |||||
| Bacteriology | 7 (16) | 5 (33) | 13 (40) | 25 (27) | 0.60d |
| Virology | 4 (9) | 1 (7) | 2 (6) | 7 (8) | |
| Dermatology | 6 (14) | 1 (7) | 2 (6) | 9 (10) | |
| Immunology | 18 (42) | 6 (40) | 10 (30) | 34 (37) | |
| Epidemiology | 8 (19) | 2 (13) | 6 (18) | 16 (18) | |
a
The nasal carrier state was defined according to the carrier index (i.e., the proportion of cultures yielding S. aureus for a given individual). Noncarriage, carrier index of 0; intermittent carriage, carrier indices of 0.1 to 0.7; persistent carriage, carrier indices of 0.8 to 1.0.
b
χ2 = 2.392 (2 degrees of freedom).
c
F = 2.096 (degrees of freedom, between and within, 2 and 88, respectively).
d
χ2 = 6.387 (8 degrees of freedom).