Some Physicians Prioritize Unreliable Urinalysis Results When Treating Infections

Some physicians prescribing antibiotics for suspected urinary tract infections (UTIs) are basing their decisions primarily on urinalysis results, which are an unreliable basis for diagnosis, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors’ Association. In surveys administered to 876 New Hampshire primary care physicians and advanced practice providers, researchers posed 19 different scenarios of patients with suspected UTIs and asked which patient characteristics would be most important when deciding whether to prescribe antibiotics. On average, they found that urinalysis results made up 32 percent of final prescribing decisions. That was higher than lower urinary tract symptoms (17 percent), body temperature (17 percent) and physical examinations (15 percent), each of which is recommended in guidelines for diagnosis. Access the abstract.