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Table 3 Stratification by covariates

From: Does vancomycin prescribing intervention affect vancomycin-resistant enterococcus infection and colonization in hospitals? A systematic review

Variable

Number of studies

Significant % reduction in VRE acquisition

Fisher's exact test comparing strata

Type of intervention

  

NS1

   Vancomycin reduction alone

6

2

 

   Vancomycin plus other interventions

7

5

 

Site-based2

  

(p = 0.029, FET2)

   Ward alone

7

6

 

   Hospital-wide

6

1

 

VRE acquisition occurrence3

  

NS

   Outbreak only

2

2

 

   Endemic (with or without outbreak)

9

3

 

Study design

  

NS

   A1

5

3

 

   A1*

4

4

 

   A2 †

5

2

 

Duration of intervention

  

NS

   ≤ 6 months

4

3

 

   > 6 months

9

4

 
  1. 1 NS = not significant result of Fisher's exact test comparing strata
  2. 2 Stratification by severity of illness yields identical results to the site-based stratification: "ward alone" and "high severity of illness" are identical strata; "hospital wide" and moderate severity of illness" are identical strata
  3. 3Excluded Rubin et al. (initial cases) and Fridkin et al. (multi-cite, outbreak/endemic status not reported)
  4. A1 = 1-group pretest-posttest design; A2 = 1-group pretest-posttest design that uses a double pre-test (for a complete description of hierarchy of quasi-experimental design studies, see Harris et al.), * Category A1 with multiple post-tests; † Category A2 with multiple post-tests