Analysis of Risk Factors for Urinary Tract Infections in Pregnant Women: A Retrospective Study

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common bacterial infection during pregnancy. This study aimed to investigate the risk factors of UTI during pregnancy.

In this study, pregnant women who underwent prenatal examination in our hospital from October 2019 to October 2023 were divided into UTI group and non-UTI group in accordance with whether or not they had a UTI. The general data, clinical data and laboratory indicators of the participants were collected. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyse the influencing factors of UTI in pregnant women, and the results were shown with odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI).

A total of 600 pregnant women were included in the study. The results found that 56 women (9.33%) had a combined UTI. The results of midstream urinary bacterial culture in the UTI group showed that Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 60.71% of all detected pathogenic bacteria, and Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were common strains, accounting for 46.43% and 23.21%, respectively. The proportions of patients in the UTI group who were ≥35 years old, had a high school education or below, had a history of abortion, had gestational diabetes, had ≥three vaginal and anal examinations, had a history of UTI and had urinary tract stones were significantly higher than the non-UTI group (p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age ≥35 years (OR = 9.127; 95% CI: 4.668-17.810; p < 0.001), educational level of high school or lower (OR = 4.184; 95% CI: 2.448-7.160; p < 0.001), gestational diabetes (OR = 3.494; 95% CI: 1.789-6.803; p < 0.001), UTI history (OR = 2.074; 95% CI: 1.114-3.834; p < 0.001) and haemoglobin (Hb) <100 g/L (OR = 8.022; 95% CI: 4.532-14.325; p < 0.001) are risk factors for UTI in pregnant women.

The common pathogenic bacteria of pregnant women with UTI are mainly Gram-negative bacteria. Older pregnant women, low educational level, gestational diabetes mellitus, history of UTI and anaemia may be risk factors for UTI in pregnant women.