Interacting with pets could protect people from recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection acquired outside the hospital, according to a study published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
Researchers conducted a case-control study among 232 patients, with recurrent and nonrecurrent C. diff. Of the 232 patients, 127 acquired C. diff outside the hospital.
They found that, among the 127 patients, increasing contact with pets increased protection against recurrent C. diff.
The researchers calculated a pet contact score on a scale of 1 to 7 to indicate how often patients had contact with pets. They found that for every point increase in a pet contact score, the likelihood of C. diff recurring decreased by 14 percent.
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