Patients with type 2 diabetes have a 60% increased risk of developing a UTI compared with those without diabetes, concludes new research on a UK population.
The study involved 135,000 patients with diabetes from the General Practice Research Database who were matched with a similar number of controls without diabetes.
Over two years, the adjusted two-year risk of UTI for all patients with diabetes was 61% higher than matched controls. The absolute incidence of UTI among patients with diabetes was 46.9 per 1,000 person-years, compared with 29.9 in patients without diabetes.
Patients with a new diagnosis of diabetes – defined as those with diabetes recorded six months or later than GP registration – had a lower UTI incidence, at 45.5 per 1,000 person years, than those with a diagnosis at registration or six months later, whose UTI incidence was 58.8 per 1,000 person-years.
The US researchers – including employees of the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb – concluded: ‘Our results confirm that patients with diabetes are at an increased risk of developing UTIs across all age categories.'
J Diabetes Complications 2012, online 13 August