Prevalence of healthcare-associated infections and its relationship with health determinants in ICU patients from the José Carrasco Arteaga hospital

Background: Health care-associated infections (HAI) represent a public health care problem and are defined as infections that appear within the first 48 hours of hospitalization or within 30 days after receiving medical care. Objective: To determine the prevalence of HAI and its relationship with determinants of health on intensive care unit (ICU) patients of the José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital in the year 2019. Materials and Methods: An analytical study was performed with the medical records of 515 patients treated in 2019 in the ICU of the José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital. Simple and double entry tables were used, as well as a significance level of 95% (p<0.05) to measure the relationship between the presence of HAI and the determinants of health. Results: Older adults (47.4%) predominated in the study population, with 53% being male, especially residing in urban areas (70.3%). The most common comorbidities were hypertension, diabetes and cancer. The majority used medical devices in their treatment (74%), with hospital stays of 3-6 days (76.3%). HAI were caused by bacteria such as Escherichia coli 25%, Klebsiella pneumoniae 12.7% and Staphylococcus spp 27%; as well as fungi like Candida glabrata with 2.5%. There was a significant relationship between in-hospital factors and HAI, whereas there was no significant link with out-of-hospital factors. Conclusions: The prevalence of HAI was 15,3 per 100 patients. In-hospital factors were the most important, especially prolonged stay and the use of medical devices, mainly mechanical ventilation and bladder catheter.