Decreased Hospital-Acquired Respiratory Infections among elder Inpatients in General Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: In order to avoid nosocomial transmission of COVID-19, various prevention and control measures have been strictly implemented in medical institutions. These strict measures can probably reduce the incidence of hospital acquired respiratory infections. We conducted this study to assess changes in the prevalence of hospital acquired respiratory infections during a period of national attention to the prevention the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of patients from October to December 2019 and from October to December 2020. The diagnostic of hospital acquired respiratory infections was based on CDC/NHSN criteria. We compared the incidence and mortality rate of hospital acquired respiratory infections between these 2 periods. We also used multivariate logistics regression analysis for risk factors associated with mortality. Results In 2020, a total of 2921 patients’ data were surveyed, as compared with 2211 patients in 2019. Incidence of hospital acquired respiratory infections was lower in 2020 (2.9% vs. 4.7%, P = 0.001). In hospital mortality of patients with hospital acquired respiratory infections had no significant difference (38.4% vs. 30.5%, p = 0.252). Multivariate logistics regression analysis showed that severe pneumonia (RR = 28.235, 95%CI: 10.122, 78.759, p = 0.000), previous malignant tumor (RR = 4.599, 95%CI: 1.768, 11.963, p = 0.002) and cardiac injury (RR = 2.264, 95%CI: 0.935, 5.485, p = 0.07) were associated with an increased risk of mortality. Conclusions The incidence of hospital acquired respiratory tract infections was significantly decreased during COVID-19 period as a result of the adoption of infection prevention and control measures in medical institutions. Elder patients with severe pneumonia and previous malignant tumor were at high risk for death in hospital.