Screening with urinary dipsticks for reducing morbidity and mortality.

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Diagnostic Screening
• Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

• Urinary dipsticks are utilized for screening asymptomatic individuals and case-finding in hospital patients.
• Abnormalities detected may lead to investigations for serious conditions like bladder cancer and chronic kidney disease (CKD).
• Potential benefits include earlier detection, while harms involve unnecessary invasive follow-up and treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the benefits and harms of urinary dipstick screening.
• To evaluate screening in general populations and hospital inpatients.

Main Methods:

• Searched the Cochrane Renal Group's Specialised Register up to September 2014.
• Included randomized controlled trials and other study types comparing dipstick screening with no screening.
• Excluded studies on patients with existing urinary disorders.

Main Results:

• Searches yielded 4298 records; 4249 were excluded after title/abstract assessment.
• 49 records (44 studies) were eligible for full-text review.
• No studies met the inclusion criteria for analysis.

Conclusions:

• No evidence was found to assess the benefits and harms of urinary dipstick screening.
• The overall impact of urinary dipstick screening remains unknown.