ObjectiveTo study the direct economic burden of hospitalization in patients with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infection.MethodsPatients with CRE detected in Jianyang People’s Hospital between January 2017 and June 2019 were divided into infection group and colonization group, and multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the confounding factors, and then propensity score matching method was used to match the confounding factors of the two groups, finally the direct economic burden of hospitalization was compared between the two groups.ResultsA total of 2 013 patients were enrolled, including 507 CRE-infected patients and 1 506 CRE-colonized patients. Multiple linear regression results showed that factors affecting the direct economic burden of hospitalization included mechanical ventilation, intravenous catheterization, blood transfusion or use of blood products, urinary intubation, tracheotomy, gender, surgery, intensive care unit stay, main diagnosis, and the type of medical insurance, together with CRE infection (P<0.05). After propensity score matching, these confounding factors were well balanced between the infection group (n=249) and the colonization group (n=249), and the differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05). The median of total hospitalization cost of CRE-infected patients was 1.29 times (15 589.23 yuan more than) that of CRE-colonized patients and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (Z=–3.116, P=0.002). The top two types of hospitalization cost with largest differences in the medians were the cost of Western medicine (4 850.21 yuan; Z=–3.460, P=0.001) and the cost of laboratory diagnosis (2 613.00 yuan; Z=–3.529, P<0.001), respectively. The cost of antimicrobial drugs differed significantly between the two groups (Z=–3.391, P=0.001), and it was 1.54 times in patients with CRE infection what it was in patients with CRE colonization.ConclusionsThere are many factors affecting the direct economic burden of inpatients, and it is necessary to avoid the influence of confounding factors as far as possible during analysis. The economic burden of patients with CRE infection is significantly greater than that of CRE-colonized patients, so active measures should be adopted to prevent and control CRE infection.