ABSTRACT
Background. Central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) are serious healthcare associated infections. During the COVID pandemic, we observed an increased incidence of CLABSIs in our healthcare system. We sought to identify risk factors for CLABSI among patients with COVID. Methods. We performed a single-center, matched case-control study in patients admitted between Mar 2020 and Dec 2020 who were 1) diagnosed with COVID based on laboratory results or diagnosis code, and who were 2) at risk for developing a CLABSI based on the presence of a central line for >=3 days. Cases were those diagnosed, based on National Healthcare Safety Network criteria, with CLABSI;controls were patients not diagnosed with CLABSI. Cases and controls were 1:4 matched based on age at admission (+/- 5 years) and COVID diagnosis date (+/- 45 days). Descriptive statistics were calculated for continuous and categorical variables. For comparisons, p values are from generalized estimating equations accounting for clustering by casecontrol matches. All analyses were performed in SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Approval was granted by our institutional IRB. Results. Characteristics of the patients who were diagnosed with COVID and at risk for developing a CLABSI are presented in table 1. Compared to patients with COVID and no CLABSI, patients with a CLABSI were more likely to be of a non-white race (p=0.0435). A longer length of stay was observed among CLABSI patients, (p=0.0011) and patients with CLABSI were less likely to be discharged to home (p=0.0084). There was a non-statistically significant trend toward a history of diabetes (p=0.0554), receipt of corticosteroids (p=0.052) and receipt of tocilizumab (p=0.0952) among CLABSI patients. Conclusion. Patients hospitalized for COVID who developed a CLABSI had longer hospitalizations and were less likely to be discharged home. Race other than white was a risk factor for CLABSI among patients with COVID. The relationships between race, racism, and CLABSI should be further explored. (Table Presented).