| Nosocomial infections vex infection control practitioners (ICP) in hospitals. Recent use and abuse of antibiotics in clinical settings caused a forced evolution of these infections. There are opportunistic pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that pose a significant health risk to people who seek treatment in hospitals. The purpose of this study is to examine the hospital rates of MRSA infection against aggregate level community data to examine whether specific environmental variables such as demographics and type of community have more of an effect than size and type of the hospital under question. Risk factors including patient demographics and regional differences were described. The study is grounded in the chain of infection theory and sought to answer what factors are more predictive of higher levels of MRSA infection at a hospital site. The data used to answer this question were collected in a cross-sectional study that examined infection rates using a multilinear regression and hierarchical linear regression to determine which factors correlated more strongly with higher rates of MRSA infection. The hospital level study found bed count to be most predictive of infections, but the individual level analyses showed community demographics, mean income, and concentration of urban environment were being confounded, and admission source can be predictive of MRSA infection at the hospital level. The potential positive social change resulting from this research could promote awareness about hospital and environmental factors that contribute to the growth of MRSA infection. As awareness is promoted, hospitals at most risk could take extra steps to ensure their disease burden is lessened. |
