Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs): Expanding Analysis to the Microbiologic Level

ABSTRACT

Background. Increases in central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rates have been reported in association with the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among Candida species and coagulase-negative Staphylococcal species (CoNS). We sought to further validate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on CLABSI trends and perform a microbiologic analysis. Methods. This is an IRB-approved retrospective analysis of CLABSIs across a network of 38 community hospitals in southeastern United States. CLABSI rates were compared between pre-pandemic (1/1/2018-3/30/2020) and pandemic periods (4/1/2020-12/31/2021). Regression models were developed to evaluate CLABSI incidence over time. Likelihood ratio tests were used to compare models that were exclusively time-dependent to segmented regression models that also accounted for the COVID-19 pandemic. Results. A total of 1,167 CLABSIs over 1,345,062 central line days were analyzed (Table 1). The mean monthly CLABSI rate per hospital increased from 0.63 to 1.01 per 1,000 central line days (p< 0.001) in the pandemic period (Table 1). CLABSIs secondary to Candida (0.16 to 0.33, p< 0.001), CoNS (0.09 to 0.22, p< 0.001), and Enterococcal species (0.06 to 0.18, p=0.001) increased, while Escherichia coli CLABSIs decreased (0.04 to 0.01, p< 0.001). Upon regression modeling, the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increases in monthly CLABSI rates by Candida and Enterococcus species (Figure 1). In contrast, the changes in CoNS and Escherichia coli CLABSI rates were better explained by exclusively timedependent models (Figure 1;Table 2). Non-sustained changes in Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae CLABSI rates were also noted (Table 2). Gray areas denote COVID-19 pandemic period. Statistically significant level changes in CLABSI rates were observed among Candida and Enterococcus spp. (RR=1.92, CI 1.16-3.20 and 2.42, CI 1.09-5.38). Staphylococcus aureus CLABSI rates had a non-sustained but significant increase at the onset of COVID-19 (RR 2.20, CI 1.16-4.20). CoNS and E. coli rate changes occurred independent of COVID-19 (see Table 2). Conclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with substantial increases in CLABSIs, driven in part by Candida and Enterococcus species across this network of hospitals. However, the observed increase in CoNS CLABSIs and decrease in Escherichia coli CLABSIs appear to have occurred independently of COVID-19, which only became apparent upon regression analysis. Interpretation of pre-post statistics without assessment of pre-existing trends should be done cautiously. Additional analyses may help elucidate other factors influencing these CLABSI trends by organism.