Urinary tract infection in women visiting rural primary care practices

In order to estimate the proportion of women who have urinary tract infection, 23 rural primary care private practices agreed to obtain information according to a standard protocol on women over 12 years of age with urinary tract symptoms. Women excluded were those with vaginitis, chronic urinary tract infection, or concurrent confounding diagnoses. The results of the study on 213 women showed that the proportion of ambulatory women with urinary symptoms diagnosed as having urinary tract infection ranged from 31 percent to 71 percent, depending on the diagnostic criteria used. The type of urinary symptoms experienced by the women were not sensitive for cultures of 10(5) or more organisms per milliliter.