Asymptomatic Bacteriuria amongst Geriatrics in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among Geriatric patients in Calabar, the predisposing factors associated with this infection, the incriminating bacterial pathogens and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern.

Study Design: Ethical approval, consent from the patients, questionnaire administration, collection and processing of clean catch mid-stream urine specimens.

Place and Duration of Study: Calabar, the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria between May, 2014 and February, 2015.

Methodology: Urine samples from randomly selected 200 subjects (92 men and 108 women) between the ages of 60 to 90 years were cultured by Leigh and Williams’s method. Questionnaires were also administered.

Results: 92 (46%) subjects had asymptomatic bacteriuria. Subjects between the age group 71 – 75 years had the highest level of infection but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.165). Females 52 (48.1%) were more infected than the males 40 (43.4%) but this was not statistically significant (p=0.641). Among the diabetics only 22 (47.8%) had infection while 20 (41.6%) hypertensive subjects had infection. There was a negative correlation between diabetic subjects and the presence of infection (r=-0.2) and also a negative correlation between the hypertensive subjects and the presence of infection (r=-0.3). Escherichia coli 24 (26.1%) and Proteus spp 24 (26.1%) were the most commonly isolated bacteria.

Conclusion: This work revealed a high prevalence rate of asymptomatic bacteriuria among geriatric subjects in Calabar but no association between infection and diabetes or hypertention was observed.