Urinary Tract Infection and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women Receiving Antenatal Care at a Primary Health Care Facility in the Northern Region of Ghana

Abstract

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is frequently encountered during pregnancy and is associated with adverse maternal, fetal, and neonatal effects. However, very little information is available on the prevalence of UTI among pregnant women in the northern part of Ghana, a region with a high birth rate. This study employed a cross-sectional analysis of the prevalence, antimicrobial profile, and risk factors associated with UTI in 560 pregnant women attending primary care for antenatal check-ups. Sociodemographic obstetrical history and personal hygiene information were obtained using a well-structured questionnaire. Afterward, clean catch mid-stream urine samples were collected from all participants and subjected to routine microscopy examination and culture. Of 560 pregnant women, 223 cases (39.8%) were positive for UTI. There was a statistically significant association between sociodemographic, obstetric, and personal hygiene variables and UTI ( p < 0.0001 ). Escherichia coli (27.8%) was the commonest bacterial isolate followed by CoNS (13.5%) and Proteus species (12.6%). These isolates exhibited greater resistance to ampicillin (70.1–97.3%) and cotrimoxazole (48.1–89.7%) but were fairly susceptible to gentamycin and ciprofloxacin. Gram-negative resistance to meropenem was up to 25.0%, and Gram positives resistance to cefoxitin and vancomycin was up to 33.3% and 71.4% respectively. The current findings extend our knowledge of the high frequency of UTIs and associated risk factors in pregnant women with E. Coli being the predominant and usual isolate. Variation existed in the resistance pattern of isolates to various drugs, underscoring the need to perform urine culture and susceptibility before treatment.

Prevalence and Susceptibility of Urinary Tract Infections’ Bacteria in Catheterized Patients to Commonly Used Antibiotics

“…The finding in this study is in line with the findings by Kulkarni et al (2014) who reported 21.47% prevalence, and indicates that Escherichia coli was the commonest isolate (47.36%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (19.2%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (14.10%), Staphylococcus aureus (3.5%) and Enterococcus faecalis (5.2%). It also corroborates the findings of Orji et al (2022) and Vicar et al (2023). Table 2 shows the prevalence of bacterial isolates associated with CAUTIs in relation to gender.…”

Antimicrobial resistance of clinical bacterial isolates according to the WHO’s AWaRe and the ECDC-MDR classifications: the pattern in Ghana’s Bono East Region

“…An ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and cotrimoxazole combination was also found to have multidrug resistance, with ceftriaxone (6.3%), ciprofloxacin (11%) and amikacin (9.9%) having lower resistance percentages (Newman et al, 2011). This observation suggests that the current prevalence of AMR per the WHO ACCESS classification agrees with previous studies (Jia et al, 2023;Vicar et al, 2023).…”

Antimicrobial Profile of Bacterial Agents of Urinary Tract Infection in Pregnant Women from Selected Hospitals in Gusau, Nigeria

“…E. coli, the most frequently isolated organism was resistant to both Ceftriaxone and Cefuroxime at 94.1% and to Cloxacillin at 100%. This has been demonstrated in other studies where resistance values obtained in this study were higher than those mentioned in the studies (Johnson et al, 2021;Ghaima et al, 2018;Caneiras et al, 2019;Vicar et al, 2023). The irrational use and abuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics due to their affordability and easy access may be the reason for the high resistance to these drugs (Afoakwa et al, 2018;Newman et al, 2011).…”