Clustering of Staphylococcus aureus carriage among kindergarten children in Liuzhou / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To explore clustering and risk factors of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) carriage among kindergarten children in Liuzhou.@*Methods@#Two sided nasal swabs were collected from 1 702 children in Liuzhou from April to June 2018. Parents of all the children were investigated by questionnaires. The random effect Logistic regression was used to analyze the clustering and risk factors of S. aureus carriage.@*Results@#The carriage rate of S. aureus among kindergarten children was 16.3%. The randomeffect Logistic regression model indicated that the class-level random effect of S. aureus carriage among children was statistically significant(Z=2.12, P<0.01). Children aged 6 to 7 years (OR=2.18, 95%CI=1.45-3.27) and 5 years (OR=1.65, 95%CI=1.08-2.50) had higher carriage rates of S. aureus than those aged 3-4 years. The history of antibiotic using (OR=1.45, 95%CI=1.05-2.01) and skin and soft tissue infections (OR=1.36, 95%CI=1.04-1.79) in the previous year were risk factors of S. aureus carriage among children.@*Conclusion@#The class level clustering of S. aureus carriage is observed in healthy children. Age, history of antibiotic usage and history of skin and soft tissue infections are associated with risk of S. aureus carriage among preschool children.