Research Warns Inappropriate UTI Treatment Is Highly Common in Women

(Newswire.net — July 27, 2022) Orlando, FL — Urinary health issues like infections are common today, especially in women. While antibiotics are helpful, there are actually many things about the use of this medication that consumers need to take into account to avoid complications.

A study was carried out and published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, which is the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.  

In this research, it has been found that most women receive inappropriate UTI treatment. 

More particularly, almost half of women with uncomplicated urinary tract infections were treated with the wrong antibiotics. Further, nearly three-quarters received prescriptions for longer than necessary and inappropriately long treatment durations are found to be more common in rural areas. 

According to Anne Mobley Butler, Ph.D., inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for uncomplicated urinary tract infections are prevalent and come with a serious patient- and society-level consequences. 

Butler is the lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine and surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.  

“Our study findings underscore the need for antimicrobial stewardship interventions to improve outpatient antibiotic prescribing, particularly in rural settings,” she adds.

The investigators looked into insurance claims data for 670,400 women belonging to the age bracket of 18 to 44. Further, the subjects were ones who received an outpatient diagnosis of uncomplicated urinary tract infection between April 2011 and June 2015.  

It has been found that rural patients were more likely to receive a prescription for an inappropriately long duration of therapy than urban patients. This is according to an analysis of geographic data from the claims database. 

Over the study period, there was actually a slight decline in the use of both inappropriate antibiotic choices and inappropriate duration of prescriptions. However, it is also true that inappropriate prescriptions continued to be common with 47 percent of prescriptions written for antibiotics outside guideline recommendations. 

Further, 76 percent were for an inappropriate duration, nearly all of which were longer than recommended.

The scientific community is increasingly studying ways to help reduce the rates of UTIs. It is important to note that there are actually safer alternatives to antibiotics, and one is D-mannose. 

This is a therapeutic sugar that can be found in cranberries, which have long been resorted to as a folk remedy for the infection.

Studies have shown that D-mannose works in sticking with bacteria that could otherwise trigger an infection in the urinary tract. Extra-strength formulas like Purest Vantage D-mannose are even widely resorted to nowadays (amazon.com/Mannose-Capsules-600mg-Per-Cap/dp/B071J35CP5).