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Higher Risk Factors of UTI

Video: watch Dr Chris and Mandy discussing urine sampling
9.3
What about people who are at increased risk? So we’ve spoken a lot about uncomplicated syndromes could be attributed to urinary tract infection in otherwise healthy women. But, and generally, we don’t need to take samples on these people, do we? No. But sampling is recommended when people are at higher risk? Yes. What are some of the common risk factors? So if you’ve had an infection in the past 12 months, a UTI or it’s a recurrent UTI that you’ve got. If you’re elderly and your renal function isn’t as good as it should be, or good as a younger….. It would be debilitated. Yeah. And those factors do come into play when you’re choosing an antibiotic.
56.1
And then as I understand it, if you’ve travelled to an area of high resistance or are originally from an area where resistance is high, such as the Asian subcontinent. Yes. That’s another risk factor, isn’t it? That’s quite an important risk factor. Antibiotic resistance is actually a global problem. And there are particular areas where resistance to antibiotics is very, very high. If you travel to those areas, or if your ethnicity is from there, then those are the risk factors you’ve got to think about when you’re prescribing. And the study we did in Wales a little while back showed that if you’ve had the single-biggest risk factor for a resistant compared to a sensitive UTI, is recent antibiotics as well. Yes.

Sampling is not recommended for all patients with an uncomplicated UTI but for patients who have risk factors then it is recommended.

Higher risk factors of UTI include:

  • Recurrent infection / UTI within the last 12 months

  • Elderly with lower renal function

  • Travelled to or originally from an area of high antibiotic resistance.

This study showed that the biggest risk factor for resistance to antibiotics in UTI was recent antibiotics use.

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TARGET Antibiotics – Prescribing in Primary Care

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