Urinary Tract Infections Among Women with Diabetes—United States,1989

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of urinary tract infections (UTI) among U.S. women with and without diabetes and to identify how other factors might interact with diabetes to increase the risk of UTI. Data from the 1989 National Health Interview Survey, a cross-sectional survey of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population aged 18 years and older, were analyzed for 1425 women with diabetes and for 11,608 women without diabetes. A UTI in the prior year was reported by 13% of women without diabetes but by 23% of women with diabetes. Age, race, education, self-reported blood sugar control, urine testing by a health professional, doctor visits in the past year, and hospitalization were all related to UTI among women with diabetes. Detection bias and the behavior patterns of women with diabetes do not seem to account for this elevated risk of UTI. Income, marital status, cigarette smoking, duration of diabetes, type of diabetes, and overweight, however, were not related to UTI. In the United States, women with diabetes report having had a UTI in the past year almost twice as often as do women without diabetes. There is a need to clearly define the role of bacteriuria in diabetes, to understand factors that increase or decrease the risk of UTI among women with diabetes, and to evaluate UTI prevention programs that target women with diabetes.