According to Dr. Wyman, UTIs are the most common bacterial infections, which can affect women of any age. It is crucial to evaluate patterns of disease occurrence in order to inform prevention and management efforts, but specific age cohort data are not available.
Dr. Wyman and colleagues conducted a review of data from the OptumLabs® Data Warehouse and calculated annual incidence for the acute and recurrent UTIs in females over 15 years of age, 2007-2015. Acute UTI was defined as the first diagnosis of UTI after a year if continuous health plan enrollment. Recurrent UTI definition included 2 or more cases within 6 months or 3 or more UTIs within past 12 months after the first diagnosis.
Data show that females ages 15-19 have the highest incidence of uncomplicated UTIs compared to another age group. According to Dr. Wyman, it can be related to the first sexual contact. However, acute cases of UTIs decline over the years. Figure 1 demonstrates the annual incidence of uncomplicated UTIs:
Figure 1
Recurrent UTIs are highest in females of 15-19 and women over 65 years of age. Annual incidence declines over the years in all age groups.
The study is limited by data abstraction techniques. Researchers used a diagnostic code to collect a number of UTI cases without laboratory confirmation of urine culture. Dr. Wyman stressed that future research is needed to examine incidence of UTIs confirmed by tests and associated with antibiotic prescriptions, construct and validate risk models using electronic health record and health claims data to predict UTIs in women, and evaluate variations in diagnostic and treatment strategies in the management of acute, uncomplicated UTI and recurrent UTI.
Presented by Jean Wyman, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Professor and Cora Meidl Siehl Chair in Nursing Research School of Nursing, University of Minnesota.
Written by: Hanna Stambakio, BS, Clinical Research Coordinator, Division of Urology, University of Pennsylvania, @PennUrology at the 2018 ICS International Continence Society Meeting - August 28 - 31, 2018 – Philadelphia, PA USA