Experiences of veterans with spinal cord injury related to annual urine screening and antibiotic use for urinary tract infections.
Casey Hines-Munson, Sarah May, Ivy Poon and 4 others
PMID 33543579WHAT IT FOUND
Veterans with spinal cord injury reported completing antibiotic courses as prescribed and viewed annual urine screening as routine care.
They generally trusted providers, but some wanted more information on preventing urinary tract infections.
Key findings
01Survey respondents reported high medication adherence, with a mean score of 7.2 on a scale where 8 is complete adherence and 0 is non-adherence.
02Most interviewed veterans said their urine was checked just the right amount and saw annual urine testing as routine care, like blood tests.
03Some veterans wanted more information about UTI prevention and possible negative outcomes of UTIs.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only 105 of 369 distributed surveys were completed, so the survey findings may not represent all Veterans with spinal cord injury. The number of patients interviewed is not reported, although the paper says the interviewed group reached thematic saturation. Surveys were collected in person, by phone, and online, and the authors say this mixed approach may have introduced bias. Interview answers about adherence may have been influenced by social desirability, meaning patients may have reported what they thought providers wanted to hear. Only RedCap surveys could be analysed item by item, so the study could not examine which specific reasons for intentional or unintentional non-adherence were most common. Demographic information was available for 245 of the 369 Veterans contacted, not all participants. The study reports experiences and survey scores, not clinical outcomes, so it cannot show whether reducing annual urine screening changes infection rates or antibiotic resistance.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not include an author conflicts of interest declaration. The publication metadata lists NIH extramural and U.S. government non-PHS research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read patients' reported high adherence and satisfaction with urine screening as evidence that annual urine screening or antibiotic use is appropriate. The study reports experiences and survey scores, not clinical outcomes, and it does not test a treatment or stewardship intervention.