A study, presented at the ASM Microbe 2017 meeting, explores how multi-drug resistant organism colonization and clinical exposures combine to impact the risk of nursing home patients developing urinary tract infections. The meeting took place in New Orleans, from June 1 to June 5.
Researchers collected clinical, demographic and antibiotic usage data from 416 residents across 12 nursing homes in Michigan. They gathered data for catheter-associated urinary tract infections. The study only includes the 233 individuals with an indwelling urinary catheter, resulting in 182 CAUTIs.
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Multi-drug resistant organisms typically found in the groin and perirectal area — such as Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus — seem to play an important role in affecting UTI progression.
The researchers performed a regression analysis that shows that potential interaction between multi-drug resistant organisms increases the risk of having E. coli or Enterococcus in the urine. Also, exposure to both antibiotics and multi-drug resistant organisms was linked to an increased risk of UTI, for example, in the case of E. coli and penicillins.
"We find that host and microbial factors interact to amplify the risk of developing urinary tract infections. Identifying potentially modifiable risk factors such as antibiotic use, MDRO colonization and catheterization may help reduce infection incidence," study authors concluded.