Diabetes raises UTI risk in women

Diabetic women are at a higher risk of developing to urinary tract infection (UTI) after menopause as compared to non-diabetic women.Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, tracked the health of 218 diabetic and 799 non-diabetic women between the ages of 55 and 75 years from the year 1998 to 2002. The reports of a UTI were confirmed by microbiological culture and medical record review. A total of 71 non-diabetic and 26 diabetic women developed UTI during the follow-up, which translated to a rate equivalent to 6.7 and 12.2 infections per 100 persons per year, respectively. This means that women with diabetes have an 80 percent higher risk.

Analysis showed that the increased risk for UTI was highest for women taking insulin and in those with a longer duration of diabetes. These characteristics are good predictors of other diabetes complications such as retinal damage or kidney disease. No association, however, was found between recent glucose control and risk of urinary tract infection. The finding suggests that urinary tract infection maybe due to long-term effect of high glucose as opposed to a shorter-term exposure to high glucose.

The researchers also investigated whether residual urine in the bladder after voiding explained the difference in risk of UTI in diabetic women, since the nerve damage that may occur in diabetes leads to impaired emptying of the bladder.
Although diabetic women had a greater post-void residual bladder volume on average than the non-diabetic women, this difference did not explain the higher risk of UTI associated with diabetes.

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