OBJECTIVES:

The incessantly increasing prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus globally, necessitates the assessment of UTI. This study was conducted to compare the incidence of UTI amongst patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus in a tertiary care hospital.

METHODS:

This prospective observational study was conducted in all inpatients diagnosed with UTI above 18 years of age in General Medicine department. Data such as patient demographics, symptomatology, laboratory investigations and microbiology reports were recorded in a suitably designed data collection form. Multi-nomial regression was applied to obtain relative risks of factors that contribute to the development of UTI using SPSS software 20.0.

RESULTS:

A total of 180 patients were included wherein female preponderance was observed to be 113 (62.8%). Of the total 106 patients, 98 (92.5%) had a previous history of Diabetes Mellitus, 8 (7.5%) were newly diagnosed and the incidence was found to be higher in females 65 (61.3%) and geriatrics 59 (55.6%). The estimated odds for developing UTI in the age groups 30-39 years was 2.661 (95% CI 0.246 – 28.745) when compared to those > 60 years with a significance of 0.42 whilst those with diabetes were 3.267 (95% CI 0.745 – 14.331) times more likely to develop UTI than those without diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS:

Although the odds for baseline characteristics were statistically insignificant, these factors should be considered in the assessment of UTI patients with Diabetes Mellitus. In these patients, UTIs are more severe, caused by more resistant pathogens, and is associated with poor outcomes than in patients without diabetes.