Objective: To establish the prevalence of urinary tract infection in patients undergoing various forms of bladder management.
Design: A nationwide descriptive point-prevalence survey with logistic regression analysis of the data relating infection to bladder management.
Setting: Fifteen hospitals, 21 nursing homes, and 13 home care districts throughout Denmark.
Patients: Information was collected on 3,665 patients. On the day of the study, 349 patients had indwelling catheters and 1,150 were using external urine drainage systems (condoms or diapers) for bladder management.
Results: The prevalence of urinary tract infections in catheterized patients and those using external drainage systems was 13.2% and 8.1%, respectively. The prevalence of hospital-acquired urinary tract infection (4.2%) had not changed from that reported in 1978. The proportion of these infections related to the indwelling catheter, however, had reduced from 66% to 30%. Logistic regression analysis confirmed that, when corrected for the patient-related confounders (female gender, age > 60 years, incontinence, immobility, and stay in hospital for longer than 15 days), condoms (odds ratio [OR], 5.94; 95% confidence interval [CI95], 2.8 to 12.5), indwelling catheters (OR, 3.3; CI95, 2.3 to 4.8), and diapers (OR, 1.5; CI95, 1.1 to 2.1) were significantly (P < .001, P < .001, and P = .008, respectively) related to infection.
Conclusions: Prevalence surveys have revealed that over the period 1978 to 1991, during which efforts have been made to restrict the use of indwelling catheters and to encourage the care of catheterized patients according to guidelines recommended by the Danish National Centre for Hospital Hygiene, the percentage of hospital-acquired urinary tract infections associated with indwelling catheters has been halved. External urine drainage systems, however, have emerged as significant risk factors for urinary tract infection.