The following is a summary of “7295 elderly hospitalized patients with catheter-associated urinary tract infection: a case-control study,” published in the November 2023 issue of Infectious Disease by Shen et al.

Among elderly patients, catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is the second most common nosocomial infection after pneumonia. If not treated properly, it can be fatal.

Researchers initiated a retrospective study to investigate the risk factors, pathogen distribution, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of CAUTI in elderly inpatients.

They conducted a case-control study on hospitalized patients with indwelling urinary catheters aged ≥60 years (from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2022) using HIS and LIS. CAUTI and non-CAUTI patients were compared.

The results showed 182/7295 patients manifested in CAUTI, yielding an IR of 3.4 per 1000 catheter days. Independent risk factors for CAUTI (P<0.05) included urine pH ≥ 6.5, moderate or severe dependence in self-care ability classification, age ≥ 74 years, male sex, hospitalization ≥ 14 days, indwelling urinary catheter ≥ 10 days, diabetes, and malnutrition. About 182 CAUTI patient urine samples contained 276 strains of pathogenic bacteria, with a prevalence of 47.83% gram-negative, 32.97% gram-positive, and 19.20% fungi during hospitalization. Elderly CAUTI patients exhibited fever, abnormal procalcitonin, positive urinary nitrite, and abnormal urination function (P<0.001). After CAUTI in elderly patients, hospitalization days, total cost, and discharge all-cause mortality significantly increased (P<0.001), with a rise of 18 days, ¥18,000, and 2.314 times, respectively.

Investigators concluded that a large-sample study of elderly CAUTI patients identified the prevalence of multi-pathogen infections, fungal infections, and risk factors, providing insights for improved diagnosis and prevention.

Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-023-08711-0