Assessing for race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic disparities in central line-associated bloodstream infection risk in a large academic health system.

Objective: To examine the relationship between race and ethnicity and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) while accounting for inherent differences in CLABSI risk related to central venous catheter (CVC) type.

Design: Retrospective cohort analysis.

Setting: Acute care facilities within an academic healthcare system.

Patients: Adult inpatients from January 2012 through December 2017 with CVC present for ≥2 contiguous days.

Methods: We describe variability in demographics, comorbidities, CVC type/configuration, and CLABSI rate by patient's race and ethnicity. We estimated the unadjusted risk of CLABSI for each demographic and clinical characteristic and then modelled the effect of race on time to CLABSI, adjusting for total parenteral nutrition use and CVC type. We also performed exploratory analysis replacing race and ethnicity with social vulnerability index (SVI) metrics.

Results: 32,925 patients with 57,642 CVC episodes met inclusion criteria, most of which (51,348, 89%) were among non-Hispanic White or non-Hispanic Black patients. CVC types differed between race/ethnicity groups. However, after adjusting for CVC type, configuration, and indication in an adjusted cox regression, the risk of CLABSI among non-Hispanic Black patients did not significantly differ from non-Hispanic White patients (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.94, 1.51). The odds of having a CLABSI among the most vulnerable SVI subset compared to the less vulnerable was no different (odds ratio [OR] 0.95; 95% CI: 0.75-1.2).

Conclusions: We did not find a difference in CLABSI risk between non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black patients when adjusting for CLABSI risk inherent in type and configuration of CVC.