Patterns of Outpatient Urinalysis Testing and the Detection of Microscopic Hematuria

To evaluate urinalysis testing patterns within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), estimate the proportion and likelihood of patients who completed a urinalysis to have microscopic hematuria (MH), and explore how urinalysis testing patterns may influence MH detection.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional study using VHA data. We identified adult patients without a known urologic cancer history who had at least 1 outpatient visit at any VHA site and at least 1 interpretable urinalysis performed in 2015. The factors associated with the number of urinalyses performed on each patient and associations with the presence of MH were investigated.

Among 5,719,966 adults, 39% completed a urinalysis. Variation in the proportion of patients who completed urinalyses was highest by age, among patients with hypertension and diabetes, and by region. Of patients who underwent urinalysis and had no prior genitourinary cancer history, 54% did not have an interpretable urinalysis result. Among patients with at least one interpretable microscopic urinalysis, 37% had MH. This was more common among older patients, females, current smokers, and patients with more comorbidities. Variation in the likelihood of patients having MH remained after adjusting for multiple factors and when contextualized by urinalysis completion and interpretability patterns.

The number of urinalyses performed in the VHA system is remarkably high. Detection of MH is influenced by the frequency of urinalysis testing and interpretability of results. The presence and detection of MH varies by factors which should be considered when adjudicating the need for further evaluation of MH.