The Epidemiology of Hospital-Acquired Urinary Tract Infections in Intensive Care Units in Kermanshah Hospitals (Iran)

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the highest incidence of hospital-acquired infection (HAI), and hospital-acquired urinary tract infections (HAUTI) are a common problem of critical illness. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the epidemiology of HAUTIs in medical intensive care units (ICUs) and hospitals in Kermanshah, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive/analytical study was conducted in the ICUs of hospitals in Kermanshah from March 2018 to 2019. All the recognized HAUTIs were recorded in the Iranian National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as t-tests and chi-square were used for data interpretation. Results: A total of 1136 patients were admitted to the two ICUs (61 missed out of 1197 patients). The number of patients with UTI was 51, and the overall HAI rate was 4.5%. The results showed a significant relationship between sex and HAUTI (P = 0.038), so women tended to have more HAUTIs than men (6.3 and 3.6%, respectively). A significant relationship was observed between age, date (different seasons of the year), and HAUTI (P = 0.588, 0.115, respectively). Conclusions: There are few studies on HAUTIs, especially on intensive care unit-acquired infections, and more studies are required to describe the epidemiology and management of these problems. Improving conditions for expanding any strategy to reduce infections associated with HAUTIs in ICUs is recommended.