Hospitalizations among family members increase the risk of MRSA infection in a household

A new study in the US shows  that exposure to a recently hospitalized and discharged family member increased the risk of MRSA infection in a household even when the hospitalized family member was not diagnosed with MRSA.

Monthly MRSA incidence from longitudinal insurance claims using the Merative MarketScan Commercial and Medicare (2001–2021) database  was analysed for  patients visiting to inpatient, emergency department, and outpatient settings. Paitients came from households with ≥2 family members enrolled in the same insurance plan for the entire month.

A total of 157,944,708 enrollees were included and 424,512 cases of MRSA were identified. Across all included enrollees, exposure to a family member with MRSA in the prior 30 days was associated with significantly increased risk of infection (IRR: 71.03 [95% CI, 67.73–74.50]). After removing enrollees who were hospitalized or exposed to a family member with MRSA, exposure to a family member who was recently discharged from the hospital was associated with increased risk of infection (IRR: 1.44 [95% CI, 1.39–1.49]) and the risk of infection increased with the duration of the family member’s hospital stay (P value < .001).

Miller AC, Arakkal AT, Sewell DK, Segre AM, Adhikari B, Polgreen PM. Hospitalizations among family members increase the risk of MRSA infection in a household. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 2024 Jul;45(7):826-32.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F3422FED0D1A6B38B59917FE87D118D6/S0899823X24001065a.pdf/hospitalizations-among-family-members-increase-the-risk-of-mrsa-infection-in-a-household.pdf