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1 Cost of hospital management of Clostridium difficile infection 2 in United States – a meta-analysis and modelling study 3 4 Shanshan Zhang1,2 *,[email protected] 5 Sarah Palazuelos 3, [email protected] 6 Evelyn Balsells 1, [email protected] 7 Harish Nair 1, [email protected] 8 Ayman Chit 4,5, [email protected] 9 Moe H. Kyaw 4 , [email protected] 10 11 *Corresponding author 12 1. Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, University of 13 Edinburgh, Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK 14 2. Department of Preventive Dentistry, Peking University School and Hospital 15 of Stomatology, 22 Zhongguancun South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China 16 3. Sanofi Pasteur, Lyon, France 17 4. Sanofi Pasteur, Swiftwater, PA, US 18 5. Lesli Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada 19 20 Keywords: 21 Clostridium Difficile; Economic analysis; Systematic review; Meta-analysis; 22 23 Word count: 3048 24 Abstract: 257 25 1 1 Abstract: 2 Background: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the leading cause of 3 infectious nosocomial diarrhoea but the economic costs of CDI on healthcare 4 systems in the US remain uncertain. 5 Methods: We conducted a systematic search for published studies 6 investigating the direct medical cost associated with CDI hospital management 7 in the past 10 years (2005-2015) and included 42 studies to the final data 8 analysis to estimate the financial impact of CDI in the US. We also conducted 9 a meta-analysis of all costs using Monte Carlo simulation. 10 Results: The average cost for CDI case management and average 11 CDI-attributable costs per case were $42,316 (90% CI: $39,886, $44,765) and 12 $21,448 (90% CI: $21,152, $21,744) in 2015 US dollars. Hospital-onset 13 CDI-attributable cost per case was $34,157 (90% CI: $33,134, $35,180), which 14 was 1.5 times the cost of community-onset CDI ($20,095 [90% CI: $4991, 15 $35,204]). The average and incremental length of stay (LOS) for CDI inpatient 16 treatment were 11.1 (90% CI: 8.7-13.6) days and 9.7 (90% CI: 9.6-9.8) days 2 1 respectively. Total annual CDI-attributable cost in the US is estimated US$6.3 2 (Range: $1.9-$7.0) billion. Total annual CDI hospital management required 3 nearly 2.4 million days of inpatient stay. 4 Conclusions: This review indicates that CDI places a significant financial 5 burden on the US healthcare system. This review adds strong evidence to aid 6 policy-making on adequate resource allocation to CDI prevention and 7 treatment in the US. Future studies should focus on recurrent CDI, CDI in 8 long-term care facilities and persons with comorbidities and indirect cost from 9 a 10 societal perspective. Health-economic studies intervention are needed. 11 12 13 14 15 16 3 for CDI preventive 1 Background 2 3 Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of infectious nosocomial diarrhoea in 4 the United States (US)1 and the incidence and severity of C. difficile infection 5 (CDI) are increasing2. CDI is associated with significant morbidity and mortality; 6 it represents a large clinical burden due to the resultant diarrhoea and 7 potentially life-threatening complications, including pseudomembranous colitis, 8 toxic megacolon, perforations of the colon and sepsis.3-5 Up to 25% of patients 9 suffer from a recurrence of CDI within 30 days of the initial infection. Patients 10 at increased risk of CDI are those who are immuno-compromised, such as 11 those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or who are receiving 12 chemotherapy6-8, patients receiving broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy9,10 or 13 gastric acid suppression therapy9,11, patients aged over 65 years10, patients 14 with serious underlying diseases12, patients in intensive care units (ICUs)10, or 15 patients 16 procedures or those being tube-fed.10 who have recently undergone 4 non-surgical gastrointestinal 1 2 CDI represents a significant economic burden on US healthcare systems. 3 Infected patients have an increased length of hospital stay compared to 4 uninfected patients, besides there are significant costs associated with treating 5 recurrent infections. A few systematic reviews of cost-of-illness studies on CDI 6 cost are available13-21. These reviews mainly listed the range of reported cost 7 of their respective observation period or were limited by the small number of 8 included studies or inadequate control for confounding factors. No 9 meta-analysis of large number of cost data in the US has been conducted to 10 date. The cost for patients discharged to long-term care facility (LTCF) and 11 recurrent CDI management are understudied. The cost of case management 12 and total financial burden of CDI treatment in the US is therefore 13 underestimated and remains controversial. 14 15 The aim of the current study is to conduct a systematic review and 16 meta-analysis of currently available data to identify and quantify the financial 5 1 burden attributable to CDI, and to further estimate the total economic burden of 2 CDI hospital management in the US. 3 Methods 4 5 Search Strategy 6 English-language databases with online search tools were searched for to 7 offer maximum coverage of the relevant literature: Medline (via the Ovid 8 interface 1946 to July 2015); EMBASE (via the Ovid interface 1980 to July 9 2015); The Centre for Review and Dissemination Library (incorporating the 10 DARE, NHS EED, and NHS HTA databases); The Cochrane Library (via the 11 Wiley Online Library) and Health Technology Assessment Database (1989 to 12 July 2015). 13 14 We supplemented our data by searching relevant published reports from: 15 National epidemiological agencies, Google search for grey literature and hand 16 searched the reference lists of the included studies. The general search 6 1 headings identified were: Clostridium difficile, economic, costs, cost analysis, 2 health care costs, length of stay, hospitalization. Examples of the strategy for 3 Medline and EMBASE are listed in Appendix 1. 4 5 Study Selection 6 All studies that reported novel direct medical cost and/or indirect costs related to CDI 7 management were included. Review articles, comments, editorials, letters, studies of 8 outbreaks, case reports, posters and articles reporting results from economic 9 modelling of a single treatment measure (i.e. cost effectiveness of faecal 10 transplantation) were excluded in the final analysis. All relevant publications from 11 January 2005 to July 2015 were included in the search. We included the 12 following healthcare settings: hospitals, long-term care facilities and 13 community. Geographical scope covered the US. We did not apply any 14 language restriction. Our predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria are shown in 15 Appendix 2. 16 7 1 Data Extraction 2 Two reviewers (SP, SZ) independently selected the included articles and 3 extracted data. After combining their results, any discrepancies were solved by 4 discussion with HN and MK. 5 6 The primary outcomes were CDI-related costs (total costs of those with CDI 7 and other comorbidities) and CDI-attributable costs (total costs of CDI 8 management only, after controlling for the confounders). For studies with 9 control groups (e.g. matched patients without CDI), the CDI-attributable cost 10 extracted was either the cost provided by the articles or calculated by 11 reviewers using the CDI-related cost minus the treatment cost of control 12 groups. The secondary outcome was resource utilization associated with CDI, 13 i.e. CDI-related length of stay (LOS) in hospital and CDI-attributable LOS. The 14 study characteristics of each article were extracted. These included basic 15 publication information, study design, statistical methods, economic data 16 reporting characteristics and population information. 8 1 2 When multiple cost data were presented in a study, we included only one cost 3 estimate for each population subgroup as per the priority below: 4 a. Matched data> Unmatched data 5 b. Adjusted model results > Unadjusted model results 6 c. Regression model results > Calculated difference 7 d. Total cost/charges > Subgroup cost/charge (i.e. survivors, died) 8 e. Median (Interquantile Range: IQR) > Mean (Standard Deviation, SD) 9 10 All costs/charges data were inflated to 2015 US$ equivalent prices adjusted for 11 the Consumer Price Index. If the price year was not reported, it was assumed 12 to be the last year of the data collection period. In cases where charges were 13 reported without cost-to-charge given, costs were estimated using a 14 cost-to-charge ratio of 0.60, which is commonly used value in US health 15 economic studies22. 16 9 1 Meta-analysis and Estimation of National Impact 2 We carried out meta-analysis for cost studies following a Monte Carlo 3 simulation approach, as reported by Jha et al23 and Zimlichman et al17, bearing 4 in mind the heterogeneity of the included studies. For each subgroup of CDI, 5 we synthesized the data and reported a point estimate and 90% confidence 6 intervals (CIs) for the CDI-related cost, CDI-attributable cost and their 7 respective LOS. For each included study, we simulated distribution with pooled 8 results weighted by sample size. We fitted a triangular distribution for each of 9 the included studies based on their reported measures of central tendency and 10 dispersion, i.e. mean and 95% CI, median and IQR, or median and range. 11 Then we simulated 100,000 sample draws from the modeled distribution of 12 each study. At each iteration, we calculated the weighted average of all 13 included studies. Finally, we reported the mean and 90%CI from the resulting 14 distribution of the 100,000 weighted average of CDI. This approach facilitated 15 the combination of cost data and eliminated the limitation of combining 16 non-normally distributed data. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted using 10 1 the Monte Carlo simulation software @RISK, version 7.0 (Palisade Corp). 2 3 We estimated the national financial impact of CDI on the US healthcare 4 system, by determining the potential boundaries. The higher boundary was the 5 total number of CDI cases in the US in 2011 extracted from Lessa et al24, while 6 the lower boundary was the result from a meta-analysis to estimate the total 7 burden of CDI cases in the US25 (For detailed results see Appendix 4). The 8 total annual cost of CDI management was calculated multiplying the average 9 cost of management per case of CDI, with the total number of CDI cases per 10 year in the US (Figure 1). We assumed that all CDI cases received treatment 11 in hospital. A point estimate of the final cost (with range) was reported based 12 on a Monte Carlo simulation of 100,000 sample draws. 13 14 Sensitivity Analysis 15 We extracted the total number of CDI patients and CDI-attributable costs from 16 previous studies25 and reviews17,26 to carry out a sensitivity analysis of our total 11 1 cost estimates. 2 3 Quality Assessment 4 The quality of the studies included was assessed mainly based on the 5 complexity of the statistical method (figure 2). All studies were included in the 6 final analyses. 7 8 Results 9 10 Search Results 11 The search strategy identified 2,671 references from databases. Seven 12 additional references were identified through other sources. After screening 13 the titles, abstracts and relevant full texts (figure 3), a total of 42 studies were 14 included in this review. 15 16 Study Characteristics 12 1 The characteristics of the 42 included studies 2 Cost data collection periods ranged from 1997 to 2012. Most studies (n=27) 3 used national level databases, with 17 used National Independent Sample 4 (NIS) database and the remaining 10 studies extracted data from various 5 national databases. Fifteen studies were conducted at state level, of which 6 6 studies only collected data in single hospital. All studies reported cost in 7 hospital level of care, no articles identified in LTCF and community. Nearly all 8 identified references were retrospective hospital database studies (n=40) and 9 only 1 study was a prospective observational study 29 and another study was a 10 27-68 are summarized in Table 1. decision tree model48. 11 12 Most studies (n=15) investigated economic outcomes in all age inpatients. 13 Three studies reported cost data in children less than 20 years old. The 14 mean/median age of the CDI patient groups ranged from 47.4 to 73.0 years. 15 Other studies investigated complicated CDI in high-risk patient groups, such 16 as those with major surgery (n=16), inflammatory bowel diseases (n=2), liver 13 1 or renal disease (n=4), elderly (n=2) and ICU patients (n=1). There was 1 2 study each in non-surgical inpatients, sepsis inpatients and patients with 3 prolonged acute mechanical ventilation. There was 1 study focusing only on 4 recurrent CDI in the general population. 5 6 The sample sizes of included studies ranged from 85 to 7,227,788, with a 7 median sample size of 83,939. A total of 28.8 million inpatient hospital-days 8 were analysed, of which 1.31 million inpatient hospital-days were CDI patients. 9 The median sample size of CDI population was 2,938. 10 11 The methods to identify CDI varied according to the type of CDI that was 12 assessed in the study. CDI cases were identified either with laboratory test, i.e. 13 positive C. diffcile toxin assay, or hospital discharge diagnosis of C. difficile 14 (primary and/secondary) from administrative datasets using the International 15 Classifications of diseases, Ninth, Clinical Modification, ICD-9-CM 008.45. 16 Clinical diagnosis was also used in two studies. 14 1 2 CDI was classified in three types: Community-onset CDI (CO-CDI) requiring 3 hospitalization, Hospital-onset CDI (HO-CDI) complicating other diseases, or 4 both CDI (Table 2). Most of included studies considered HO-CDI (n = 23) or 5 both CDI types (n = 17). Only four studies investigated CO-CDI only. However, 6 subgroup data of CO-CDI is also available in studies that reported both CDI 7 types. 8 Table 2. Classification of CDI Cases by Setting of Acquisition Case definition CO-CDI HO-CDI Both CDI 9 10 Criteria for classification - Discharge code ICD-9-CM 008.45 as Primary diagnosis - Discharge code ICD-9-CM 008.45 as secondary diagnosis, without a primary diagnosis of a CDI-related symptom (e.g. diarrhea) - Study population ≥ 48h of hospitalization - Symptom onset and/or positive laboratory assay at least ≥ 48h hospitalization - No distinction of settings of acquisition - Discharge code ICD-9-CM 008.45 in any position Community-onset CDI: CO-CDI; Hospital-onset CDI: HO-CDI; ICD-9-CM: The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification 11 12 CDI Costs and LOS 13 The mean CDI-attributable costs per case of CO-CDI were $20,085 (Range: 14 $7,513- $29,662), lower than HO-CDI $34,149 (Range:$1,522- $122,318). 15 HO-CDI showed a wider range within which the additional cost for CDI in the 16 general population ranged from $6,893 to $90,202 and in high risk groups 15 1 ranged from $7,332 in congestive heart failure patients to $122,318 in renal 2 impairment patients. The mean CDI-attributable LOS was 5.7 days (Range: 3 2.1-33.4) for CO-CDI, 7.8 (Range:2.3-21.6) days for HO-CDI, and 13.6 4 (Range: 2.2-16) days for both groups. Cost data and LOS for individual studies 5 are presented in Tables 3 and 4. 6 7 Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we generated point estimates and 90% CI for 8 both cost and LOS; the meta-analysis results are shown in Table 5. The total 9 cost of inpatient management of CDI-related disease was $42,316 (90%CI: 10 $39,886-$44,765) per case, of which the total CDI-attributable cost was 11 $21,448 (90%CI: 21,152-21,744) per case. For the inpatient management, the 12 attributable cost for those HO-CDI was $34,157 (90%CI: $33,134-$35,180), 13 which was 1.5 times as much as CO-CDI management $20,095 (90%CI: 14 $4,991-$35,204). 15 16 Similar patterns were observed in LOS data. The total CDI-related LOS was 16 1 11.1 days (90% CI: 8.7-13.6) and CDI-attributable LOS was 9.7 (90%CI: 2 9.6-9.8). The HO-CDI patients had longer CDI-attributable LOS 9.7 days 3 (90%CI: 9.7 - 9.7) than CO-CDI patients 5.7 days (90%CI: 4.1-7.3). 4 5 CDI Annual National Impact Estimate 6 The total burden of healthcare facility CDI in US was estimated 293,300 7 (Range: 264,200- 453,000) cases per year.25 The total financial burden of CDI 8 inpatient management was estimated to be US$6.3 (Range: $1.9 - $7.0) billion 9 in 2015, which required 2.4 million days of hospital stay. The total CDI related 10 disease management cost was nearly doubled at US$12.4 (Range: $3.7 - 11 $14.4) billion in 2015 (Table 6). A sensitivity analysis showed that the total 12 CDI-attributable cost ranged from $1.31 to $13.61, which covers our estimates 13 (Appendix 5). 14 15 Quality Assessment 16 A summary of the quality assessment for statistical methods in included 17 1 studies is shown in Appendix 3. There were 13 studies of high quality, 21 2 studies with medium quality and 8 low quality studies. 3 4 Discussion 5 6 We systematically reviewed 42 published cost studies of CDI case 7 management in the past 10 years (2005-2015) and found a significant financial 8 burden associated with CDI in the US. The total CDI-attributable cost was 9 US$6.3 billion, which is higher than previously reported (range US$1.1-4.8 10 billion)14,16,17. The mean cost for CDI-attributable hospitalized patients per case 11 was US$21,448, nearly half of the mean CDI-related inpatient cost. 12 13 This review facilitated a meta-analysis of a large number of cost studies for 14 costs related to CDI management and provided an uncertainty range. 15 Zimlichman et al17 applied this method to calculate CDI cost based on cost 16 data from two cost-of-illness studies (O’Brian 200751 & Kyne 200269) and 18 1 obtained a lower cost [2012US $11,285 ($9,118-$13,574)] than ours. Our 2 review combined 100-point estimates and ranges from 42 individual studies, 3 which provided more accurate and comprehensive data of the cost result. 4 Despite 5 procedure and statistical analysis, each included study met our inclusion 6 criteria, which were defined to identify studies that provided real world 7 estimates of costs, therefore the combination of these data with uncertainty 8 range represented a valuable and reliable summary of CDI-related cost. the methodological heterogeneity in perspectives, treatment 9 10 Furthermore, we evaluated hospital onset CDI and community onset CDI 11 separately. We found that CDI complicating hospitalization cost more than CDI 12 requiring hospitalization and the former had longer attributable hospital stay. 13 Therefore, other factors, such as comorbidity, may contribute to infections and 14 increase the difficulty of CDI treatment. 15 16 We estimated that the total cost attributable to CDI management in the US was 19 1 nearly US$6.3 (Range: $1.9-$7.0) billion, which is similar to Dubberke and 2 Olsen’s estimates at $4.8 billion14, but significantly higher than other studies 3 (US$ 1.5 billion in Zimlichman et al17 and $1.1 billion in Ghantoji et al16). The 4 later studies reported lower attributable cost per case based on a limited 5 number of studies before 2005, which arguably is out-of-date. To compare with 6 the latest review on global CDI cost (Nanwa et al26), this review identified 8 7 additional studies with recent data. Nanwa et al26 found that the mean 8 attributable CDI costs ranged from US$8,911 to US$30,049, which is similar to 9 our results. 10 11 In this study, we only assessed the quality of study emphasizing statistical 12 methods and did not use the modified economic evaluation guideline as other 13 COI systematic reviews. Cost and LOS estimation of healthcare-associated 14 infections has the potential to be misleading if the confounders such as 15 patients’ comorbidities or daily severity of illness were not properly controlled 16 for. Using either the matching design or multivariable regression analysis 20 1 allows to control known confounders and may, in part, address selection bias70. 2 We found that whether advanced statistical methods were used and described 3 was crucial for the assessment of data quality, which has not be fully captured 4 by the existing quality assessment tool. Therefore in this study we assessed 5 quality of included studies using this new method. Moreover, Nanwa et al26 has 6 evaluated the methodological completeness of most included studies (34 out 7 of 42); we agree with their recommendations regarding possible improvement 8 of future cost-of-illness study. However, we need to bear in mind that cost 9 effects or excess LOS are still likely to be overestimated if the interval to onset 10 of HAI is not properly accounted for in the study design or analysis70. 11 12 Our systematic review has some limitations. First, all included studies reported 13 direct medical costs from hospital perspective, therefore indirect cost to 14 patients and society and costs of additional care after hospital discharge, have 15 not been captured. No studies reported indirect cost (productivity loss due to 16 work day losses) of patients or care-givers, and we failed to identify studies 21 1 assessing cost of CDI in long-term care facilities, where about 9% of CDI 2 patients were discharged to for an average of 24 days of after-care. This would 3 result in an additional US$141 million burden on the healthcare system and 4 society due to LTCF transfers14. Second, we did not separate primary CDI from 5 recurrent CDI cost in our review because only two studies reported cost 6 specifically to recurrent CDI $12,592 (Range: $9,752, $15,919)2. Moreover, we 7 found it difficult to exactly match the CDI case definition in cost study (e.g. 8 ICD10 Code primary diagnosis and secondary diagnosis) with the case 9 definition in epidemiology studies (e.g. community onset, hospital onset), 10 therefore we did not estimate CDI patients managed at outpatient and 11 community settings due to lack of both epidemiology and economic data. The 12 total costs of CDI management may be higher than our current estimate. 13 Fourth, unlike other published reviews, we did not include cost studies from 14 countries other than the US nor facilitate any international comparison. This 15 study initially aimed to identify cost-of-illness studies in North America, but we 16 did not find any studies reporting cost data from Canada. This is likely because 22 1 we restricted our search to English language databases. Therefore the cost of 2 CDI management in Canada remains unknown. However, we did not apply 3 any language restrictions to the current review. 4 5 Effective prevention can reduce the burden of diseases. Strategies have been 6 promoted such as appropriate use of antimicrobials, use of contact 7 precautions and protective personal equipment to care for infected patients, 8 effective cleaning and disinfection of equipment and the environment, and 9 early recognition of disease as primary prophylaxis71. As CDI is an infectious 10 disease, the population at risk would benefit from an effective vaccine, which is 11 currently under development72,73. 12 13 More cost of illness studies for recurrent CDI, or in LTCF, and indirect cost from 14 a societal perspective are needed in the future. We would also recommend 15 that published studies report their methods and include point estimates with 16 uncertainty range. Further economic studies for CDI preventive interventions 23 1 are needed. 2 3 Conclusion 4 This review indicates that CDI places a significant financial burden on the US 5 healthcare system. In addition, our findings suggest that the economic burden 6 of CDI is greater than previously reported in the US. This review provides 7 strong evidence to aid policy-making on adequate resource allocation to CDI 8 prevention and treatment in US. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 24 1 Declarations 2 List of abbreviations 3 CDI 4 CIs Confidence Intervals 5 CO CDI - Community-onset CDI 6 HCF Healthcare Facility 7 HIV 8 HO-CDI 9 ICD-9-CM 10 Clostridium difficile infection Human Immunodeficiency Virus Hospital-onset CDI The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification 11 ICUs Intensive Care Units 12 IQR Interquantile Range 13 LTCF Long-term Care Facility 14 NIS National Independent Sample 15 SD Standard Deviation 16 US United States 17 25 1 Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable 2 Consent for publication: Not applicable 3 Availability of data and materials: The datasets supporting the 4 conclusions of this article are included within the article and its 5 additional files. 6 Competing interests: SP, AC, MK are employees of Sanofi Pasteur. 7 Funding: Sanofi Pasteur funded this study. 8 Authors’ 9 collection(SZ,SP,EB); data analysis(SZ, EB); data interpretation (SZ,EB,HN, 10 AC, MK); development of initial draft manuscript (SZ, EB, HN), critical 11 revisions for intellectual content of manuscript (SZ, SP, EB, HN, AC, MK); 12 study supervision (HN, MK). All authors reviewed and approved the final draft 13 of manuscript. 14 Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge the comments and 15 suggestions from Guy De Bruyn, Clarisse Demont, Kinga Borsos (Sanofi 16 Pasteur) during manuscript preparation. We thank Sanofi Pasteur for financial contributions: Study 26 design (MK,HN, AC); data 1 support for this work. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of 2 the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views or policies of 3 Sanofi Pasteur. 4 27 1 References 2 3 1. Crobach M, Dekkers O, Wilcox M, Kuijper E. European Society of Clinical 4 Microbiology 5 recommendations for diagnosing Clostridium difficile-infection (CDI). Clin 6 Microbiol Infect 2009; 15(12): 1053-66. 7 2. Dubberke ER, Carling P, Carrico R, et al. Strategies to prevent clostridium 8 difficile infections in acute care hospitals: 2014 update. 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