Are UTIs Overdiagnosed in Older Patients?

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) often are diagnosed in older hospitalized patients. Sometimes, presumed UTI is the reason for admission; sometimes, it is a secondary or incidental diagnosis. Suspecting that clinically relevant UTIs are overdiagnosed in older patients, U.K. researchers performed a retrospective single-center study of 265 hospitalized patients (age, ≥75) whose primary or secondary discharge diagnoses included UTIs.

Three presentations were considered to be consistent with UTI if a urine culture (collected before antibiotics were started) was positive: (1) acute urinary symptoms; (2) positive blood culture with known uropathogen; and (3) no reported urinary symptoms, but presence of a urinary catheter or a condition that might …