World-Wide Variation in Incidence of Staphylococcus aureus Associated Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: A Meta-Regression.

() is a common Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) isolate. The objective here is to define the extent and possible reasons for geographic variation in the incidences of -associated VAP, MRSA-VAP and overall VAP. A meta-regression model of -associated VAP incidence per 1000 Mechanical Ventilation Days (MVD) was undertaken using random effects methods among publications obtained from a search of the English language literature. This model incorporated group level factors such as admission to a trauma ICU, year of publication and use of bronchoscopic sampling towards VAP diagnosis. The search identified 133 publications from seven worldwide regions published over three decades. The summary -associated VAP incidence was 4.5 (3.9-5.3) per 1000 MVD. The highest -associated VAP incidence is amongst reports from the Mediterranean (mean; 95% confidence interval; 6.1; 4.1-8.5) versus that from Asian ICUs (2.1; 1.5-3.0). The incidence of -associated VAP varies by up to three-fold (for the lowest versus highest incidence) among seven geographic regions worldwide, whereas the incidence of VAP varies by less than two-fold. Admission to a trauma unit is the most important group level correlate for -associated VAP.