Changes in the relative prevalence of candidaemia due to non-albicans Candida species in adult in-patients: A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression

Background: Candidaemia remains associated with high mortality and increased costs worldwide.

Objective: To assess the changes over time in the relative prevalence of non-albicans candidaemia (NAC).

Methods: A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression were performed. Observational studies investigating the epidemiology of consecutive, non-selected, candidaemia episodes were included. Two separated analyses were conducted: (a) whole hospital analysis and (b) intensive care unit (ICU) analysis.

Results: Starting from an initial total of 7726 records, 220 studies fulfilled inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of NAC in whole hospital analysis was 49.5% (95% confidence intervals [CI] 48.0-51.1, I² 93.1%), while the pooled prevalence in ICU analysis was 50.6% (95% CI 46.6-54.6; I² 86.7%). In meta-regression, a progressive increase in NAC prevalence was observed in whole hospital analysis, although it explained only a small portion of between-study variance (estimated yearly prevalence change +0.3%, 95% CI from +0.1% to +0.5%, P = .003; adjusted R² 3.42%) and was observed only in some continents in subgroup analyses. No relevant changes over time were observed in NAC prevalence for ICU studies.

Conclusions: We registered an increasing trend in the relative prevalence of NAC, which, nonetheless, seems to be limited to some continents and to contribute only minimally to explain the observed differences in NAC prevalence across studies.