title: Clostridium difficile Infection: An Emerging Cause of Death in the Twenty-First Century.
abstract: Enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile is major emerging cause of death in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2012, C. diff. deaths rose by a staggering almost ten-fold amount, to 7,739 from 793. This article has three goals. First, we present a demographic description of C. diff. mortality in the U.S. since 1999. Second, we test a hypothesis that the increase in C. diff. deaths is due to population aging. We find that the emergence of this cause of death follows a proportional hazard pattern above age 40. Thus, population aging is not the only factor responsible for the increase in C. diff. deaths. This, combined with a contributory cause of death analysis, points towards health care-based strategies to combat C. diff. Third, we demonstrate a simple weighted least squares technique for estimating Gompertz models that gives parameter estimates that are closer to full maximum likelihood than conventional approaches.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention , University of California , Irvine , California , USA.
authors.forename: Viytta N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Abdullatif
authors.affiliation: a Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention , University of California , Irvine , California , USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Noymer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death / Q000639:trends*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology