ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2026
Estimating Changes in Facility Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Infection Rates Due to Changes in MRSA Precaution Policy.
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe effectiveness of contact precautions (CP) and active surveillance (AS) for preventing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in acute care remains uncertain. Some studies suggest CP reduces MRSA spread, while others report limited benefit. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted MRSA prevention practices in the VA, creating an opportunity to assess their impact on MRSA healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
methodsWe studied 121 VA acute care hospitals from July 2020-June 2022. Facility practices (AS, CP for colonized [CPC], CP for infected [CPI]) were assessed via national surveys. Patient-level data identified MRSA HAIs (incident cultures ≥3 days postadmission). Secondary outcomes included sterile-site infections and 30-day postdischarge cultures. Associations between practices and HAI rates were estimated using Poisson, negative binomial, and mixed-effects Poisson regression, adjusting for baseline MRSA burden, COVID-19 admissions, culturing intensity, and hospital characteristics.
resultsAmong 905 164 admissions, 1708 incident MRSA cultures were identified. Many facilities suspended at least one prevention practice early in the pandemic, though most later reinstated them. In simpler models, discontinuation of AS, CPC, or CPI was associated with higher MRSA rates, but these associations were attenuated after adjustment for baseline burden. Mixed-effects models found no significant associations, and results were consistent across secondary outcomes.
conclusionsDiscontinuation of MRSA prevention practices during the pandemic was not consistently linked to increased HAIs after accounting for baseline burden. Findings emphasize the role of facility-specific factors and modeling assumptions in evaluating infection control. Unmeasured pandemic-related practices (eg, masking, PPE use) likely also influenced transmission, highlighting the need for flexible, context-sensitive, evidence-based infection prevention policies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.