Profiling urinary tract infections bacteria among elderly population in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital

Abstract

There have been conflicting reports about prevalence of Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) causing bacteria in elderly in recent times. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence and resistance pattern of UTIs causing bacteria in elderly Nigerian patients. A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out among elderly patients attending the general and medical outpatients’ clinics of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria. Patients aged 60 years and above with at least two signs of UTIs were purposefully selected for the study. Clean catch mid-stream urine specimens from 100 eligible patients were examined for significant bacteriuria. Identification and antibiotics susceptibility patterns of the isolates were determined using standard techniques. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. Association between variables was determined using Chi-squared test. P values<0.05 were considered significant. One hundred elderly outpatients were evaluated. Majority of the study participants were males (68, 68.0%) and (64, 64.0%) were married. More than half of the participants (59, 59.0%) had no significant bacteriuria. Among the participants with significant bacteriuria (41, 41.0%), males (29/41, 70.7%, p=0.001) were more than the females (12, 29.3%). Klebsiella pneumoniae (19/41, 46.3%) was the most isolated organism in the participants’ urine specimens, (35/41, 85.4%) of the isolates were resistant to nitrofurantoin. Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most isolated UTIs-causing bacteria among the elderly evaluated. Physicians need to be aware of trends in profiles of UTIs-causing bacteria for effective diagnosis of the disease in elderly.

Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences (2017) 6(3), 15 - 22