Are probiotics effective in preventing urinary tract infection?

Area of Science:

• Infectious Diseases
• Microbiology
• Preventive Medicine

Background:

• Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are highly prevalent bacterial infections with frequent recurrences.
• Probiotics are being investigated as a potential alternative strategy to reduce UTI recurrence.
• The clinical efficacy of probiotics for UTI prevention is not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of probiotics in preventing symptomatic urinary tract infections.
• To synthesize evidence from existing systematic reviews and primary studies.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive search was conducted using Epistemonikos, a large database of systematic reviews.
• Data were extracted from six systematic reviews, including nine studies (seven randomized trials).
• A meta-analysis was performed, and findings were summarized using the GRADE approach.

Main Results:

• The analysis included six systematic reviews encompassing nine studies.
• Seven of the included studies were randomized controlled trials.
• The overall evidence for probiotics preventing symptomatic UTIs was assessed as very low certainty.

Conclusions:

• It remains uncertain whether probiotics effectively decrease the risk of symptomatic urinary tract infections.
• The very low certainty of the evidence necessitates caution in interpreting these findings.
• Further high-quality research is required to clarify the role of probiotics in UTI prevention.