Correlation between candiduria and departmental antibiotic use

The incidence of candiduria is increasing in teaching hospitals. We examined the hypothesis that this trend was correlated with the amount of departmental antibiotic consumption. In the setting of a large teaching hospital in Israel, the correlation coefficient between departmental intravenous antibiotic consumption (expressed as daily defined dose (DDD)/1000 patient-days) and the incidence of candiduria per 1000 patient-days was 0.47 (P = 0.03). For broad-spectrum antibiotics, the corresponding correlation coefficient was 0.66 (P = 0.001). The strongest correlation with candiduria was shown for the use of meropenem (r = 0.79, P < 0.001) and ceftazidime (r = 0.66, P = 0.001). This is the first time that departmental habits of antibiotic use have been shown to be strongly correlated with the incidence of candiduria in hospitalized patients. These results add an important new dimension to the strategy of restricting broad-spectrum antibiotics. (C) 2003 The Hospital Infection Society.