Table 1.

Characteristics of included studies in pooled analysis.

Study Location	United States (US)	Netherlands (NL)	Australia (AU)
Study Design	Cross-sectional	Cross-sectional	Longitudinal (only cross-sectional data from baseline used for the current study)
Study Setting	Major metropolitan area	Throughout the country	Major metropolitan area and surrounding suburbs
Case identification	Inpatient and outpatient screening at a hospital	Inpatient and outpatient screening at 16 hospitals located across the country	Community-based private pathology service
Exclusion criteria	-Inpatients ≥72 hours after hospital admission -Living outside the hospital catchment area -Resident in a long-term care facility -Hospitalized within the past 6 months -Homeless or living in a shelter -Having a chronic illness (e.g. on dialysis) -Younger than 2 years	-Previous history of MRSA colonization or infection -Resident in a long-term care facility -Living abroad -Admitted to a foreign hospital in past year -Underwent dialysis in a foreign hospital -Direct contact with living pigs and/or veal calves -Adopted child -Re-admission to hospital between infection and home visit -Younger than 1 year	-Inpatients >48 hours after hospital admission -Infection reported ≤2 weeks after hospital discharge
Number of cases	N = 139	N = 61	N = 96
Control selection (not included in pooled analyses)	Uninfected community-based controls	Hospitalized non-MRSA cases	MSSA infected cases
Study procedures	Home visit after infection	Home visit after infection	Home visit after infection
Average interval between infection and home visit	33 days	43 days	114 days
Interview	Interviewer-administered questionnaire	Interviewer-administered questionnaire	Self-completed questionnaire
Risk factor recall period	6 months prior to infection	1 year prior to infection	1 year prior to infection
Body sites sampled	-Anterior nares	-Anterior nares -Oropharyngeal	-Anterior nares -Axilla crease
Strain characterization	Spa-typing	Spa-typing	Spa-typing