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Epidemiology of bacteriuria in an elderly ambulatory population
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Epidemiology of bacteriuria in an elderly ambulatory population

Jerome A. Boscia, William D. Kobasa, Ralph A. Knight, Elias Abrutyn, Matthew E. Levison and Donald Kaye
The American journal of medicine, v 80(2), pp 208-214
1986
PMID: 3946436

Abstract

This study of bacteriuria in elderly (mean age 85 years, range 68 to 103) Jewish subjects of mostly middle and upper class attempted to determine disease prevalence, define the turnover in infected subjects, and assess the relation between functional status and infection. The prevalence of bacteriuria (midstream clean-catch method) was assessed in 373 women and 150 men. It was higher in women (18.2 percent) than in men (6.0 percent) (p <0.001) and was more common in functionally impaired nursing home residents (23.5 percent) than in apartment house dwellers (12.1 percent) (p <0.01). In longitudinal studies, 260 subjects (184 women and 76 men) had three urine culture surveys at six-month intervals. The cumulative percent infected on at least one survey was high (women 30.4 percent, men 10.5 percent). However, persistence of the same organism on all three surveys was surprisingly infrequent (women 6.0 percent, men 1.3 percent), and the turnover of infected and noninfected subjects was considerable. Persistence of bacteriuria on all three surveys was significantly more common in nursing home residents (13.9 percent) than in apartment house dwellers (3.1 percent) (p <0.01). Thus, bacteriuria is common in the elderly and appears related to functional status. However, the turnover of infected and noninfected subjects was high, and surprisingly, persistence was not found in most. The transient nature of bacteriuria in most provides support against the treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in the elderly.

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