The incidence of bacteriuria and pyuria in Peruvian children with malnutrition

Bacteriuria and urinary tract infections in malnourished children

“…Previous studies, which compared the incidence of bacteriuria in malnourished children and normal controls, did not find significant differences [6,7,11]. Contrary to previous reports [7,8,9], we also found that the risk of bacteriuria increased with increasing severity of malnutrition. Thus, the incidence of bacteriuria was threefold higher in patients with severe compared with moderate malnutrition.…”

“…These observations support those reported previously, where significant bacteriuria was seen in 8%-34.7% of malnourished children (Table 4) [2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11,12]. Previous studies, which compared the incidence of bacteriuria in malnourished children and normal controls, did not find significant differences [6,7,11]. Contrary to previous reports [7,8,9], we also found that the risk of bacteriuria increased with increasing severity of malnutrition.…”

“…The lack of symptoms has also been reported by other workers [3,7,11,13]. Even if these patients are excluded, the incidence of symptomatic bacteriuria (12 of 112, 10.7%) was significantly higher in malnourished subjects compared with normal controls (2 of 112, 1.8%) (P<0.01).…”

“…A number of reports, mainly from developing countries, indicate a high incidence of bacteriuria in malnourished children [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. However, most studies have either not prospectively compared the incidence of bacteriuria in malnourished and normally nourished children [2,3,4,5,8,9,10,13], or have not found significant differences [6,7,11]. It is also not certain whether the risk of bacteriuria is higher with increasing severity of malnutrition [7,8,9].…”

“…However, most studies have either not prospectively compared the incidence of bacteriuria in malnourished and normally nourished children [2,3,4,5,8,9,10,13], or have not found significant differences [6,7,11]. It is also not certain whether the risk of bacteriuria is higher with increasing severity of malnutrition [7,8,9]. A review of the published literature does not clarify whether the presence of bacteriuria merely represents colonization or an established infection.…”