Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32047916›Full record

ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2020

Estimating the Effect of Healthcare-Associated Infections on Excess Length of Hospital Stay Using Inverse Probability-Weighted Survival Curves.

Koen B Pouwels, Stijn Vansteelandt, Rahul Batra, Jonathan Edgeworth, Sarah Wordsworth, Julie V Robotham, Improving the uptake and SusTainability of Effective interventions to promote Prudent antibiotic Use and Primary care (STEP-UP) Team

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
3.0field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.

Koen B PouwelsHealth Economics Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Stijn VansteelandtDepartment of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Rahul BatraCentre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' National Health Services Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.
Jonathan EdgeworthCentre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' National Health Services Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.
Sarah WordsworthHealth Economics Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Julie V RobothamModelling and Economics Unit, National Infection Service, Public Health England, London, United Kingdom.
Improving the uptake and SusTainability of Effective interventions to promote Prudent antibiotic Use and Primary care (STEP-UP) Team
University of Oxford · GBPublic Health England · GBNational Health Service · GBNational Institute for Health Research · GBUniversity of London · GB

Funding

Department of Health HPRU-2012–10041
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundStudies estimating excess length of stay (LOS) attributable to nosocomial infections have failed to address time-varying confounding, likely leading to overestimation of their impact. We present a methodology based on inverse probability-weighted survival curves to address this limitation.

methodsA case study focusing on intensive care unit-acquired bacteremia using data from 2 general intensive care units (ICUs) from 2 London teaching hospitals were used to illustrate the methodology. The area under the curve of a conventional Kaplan-Meier curve applied to the observed data was compared with that of an inverse probability-weighted Kaplan-Meier curve applied after treating bacteremia as censoring events. Weights were based on the daily probability of acquiring bacteremia. The difference between the observed average LOS and the average LOS that would be observed if all bacteremia cases could be prevented was multiplied by the number of admitted patients to obtain the total excess LOS.

resultsThe estimated total number of extra ICU days caused by 666 bacteremia cases was estimated at 2453 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1803-3103) days. The excess number of days was overestimated when ignoring time-varying confounding (2845 [95% CI, 2276-3415]) or when completely ignoring confounding (2838 [95% CI, 2101-3575]).

conclusionsICU-acquired bacteremia was associated with a substantial excess LOS. Wider adoption of inverse probability-weighted survival curves or alternative techniques that address time-varying confounding could lead to better informed decision making around nosocomial infections and other time-dependent exposures.

Indexed as

Cross InfectionDelivery of Health CareHumansIntensive Care UnitsLength of StayLondonProbabilitybacteremiacausal inferenceconfoundingexcess length of stayinfection

Identifiers

PMID32047916
PMCPMC7713691
OpenAlexW3006243549

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.