Prevalence and risk factors of urinary tract infections in type 2 diabetic women

Background: Diabetic patients are more susceptible to urinary tract infections (UTI) than non-diabetics .This study was carried out to determine the prevalence and risk factors of urinary tract infections in type 2 diabetic women in Tehran.

Methods: This cross sectional study was designed to examine 511 non-pregnant type 2 diabetic women using consecutive sampling during September and March 2007. Subjects were selected from attendance of an Endocrine and Metabolism Institute of Iran University of Medical Sciences. Subjects were allocated in two  symptomatic and non- symptomatic groups. Participants with symptoms of UTI and one positive urine culture were put  in  symptomatic group and those without symptoms of UTI with two positive urine cultures were assigned as  non-symptomatic group. Asymptomatic UTI group was defined by the presence of more than 105 colony-forming units(CFU) per milliliter of one or two microorganisms in a culture of clean-voided midstream urine. Different related risk factors for developing UTI  were investigated.

Results: It was indicated that prevalence of symptomatic urinary tract infection was 6.2% and prevalence of asymptomatic urinary tract infection was 1.8%. In this study, age was the only variable among risk factors for UTI that showed significant association with urinary tract infection in diabetic women (p=0.049) There was no correlation between UTI and other risk factors.

Conclusion: This study showed that the prevalence of urinary tract infections in type 2 diabetic women was  lower than the previous studies.  Age is a risk factor for UTI   in diabetic patients .