Cranberry juice for urinary tract infections?

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Hi All,

The title is the message. Drink up?

Does ingestion of cranberry juice reduce symptomatic urinary tract infections in

older people in hospital? A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

n E. T. McMurdo, Y. Bissett, Rosemary J. G. Price, Gabby ,

and

Iain K. Crombie

Age Ageing 2005 34: 256-261.

Abstract

Background: cranberry juice is often given to older people in hospital to

prevent

urinary tract infection (UTI), although there is little evidence to support its

use.

Objective: to assess whether cranberry juice ingestion is effective in reducing

UTIs

in older people in hospital.

Design: randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.

Setting: Medicine for the Elderly assessment and rehabilitation hospital wards.

Subjects: 376 older patients in hospital.

Methods: participants were randomised to daily ingestion of 300 ml of cranberry

juice or matching placebo beverage. The primary outcome was time to onset of

first

UTI. Secondary outcomes were adherence to beverage drinking, courses of

antibiotics

prescribed, and organisms responsible for UTIs.

Results: a total of 21/376 (5.6%) participants developed a symptomatic UTI:

14/189

in the placebo group and 7/187 in the cranberry juice group. These between-group

differences were not significant, relative risk (RR) 0.51 [95% CI 0.21–1.22,

P=0.122). Although there were significantly fewer infections with Escherichia

coli

in the cranberry group (13 versus 4) RR 0.31 [95% CI 0.10–0.94, P=0.027], this

should be interpreted with caution as it was a secondary outcome.

Conclusion: despite having the largest sample size of any clinical trial yet to

have

examined the effect of cranberry juice ingestion, the actual infection rate

observed

was lower than anticipated, making the study underpowered. This study has

confirmed

the acceptability of cranberry juice to older people. Larger trials are now

required

to determine whether it is effective in reducing UTIs in older hospital

patients.

Al Pater, PhD; email: old542000@...

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