Evidence Hub

Predictive value of the urinary dipstick test in the management of patients with urinary tract infection-associated symptoms in primary care in Indonesia: a cross-sectional study

Franciscus Ginting, A. Sugianli, R. L. Kusumawati, I. Parwati, M. D. de Jong, C. Schultsz, F. van Leth

BMJ Open, 2018

616 participants · 13 citations

Abstract

Objective To assess the test characteristics of a urine dipstick test in predicting a positive urine culture in an outpatient setting in Indonesia. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Two outpatient clinics in Medan, Indonesia. Participants 616 consecutively enrolled participants suspected of having a urinary tract infection. Outcome measures The primary outcome is the estimates of accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, predictive values) where urine culture is the reference test. The secondary outcome is the post-test probability of a positive urine culture. Results The optimal test characteristics were obtained when index test positivity was defined as any leucocyte esterase reaction and/or a nitrite reaction and reference test positivity was defined as a urine culture with a growth of at least 103 colony-forming units/mL (sensitivity: 88.2% (95% CI 81.6 to 93.1), negative predictive value: 93.0% (95% CI 88.9 to 95.9)). The post-test probability of a positive urine culture after a negative urinary dipstick test was 7% in the obstetric/gynaecology clinic and 8% in the internal medicine clinic. Conclusion The use of a urine dipstick test in a rule-out strategy can reduce the need for urine culture and avoid the prescription of (ineffective) antibiotics in a non-urology outpatient setting.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause. Reported size: 616 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free