Dr. Christian Moro on education regarding UTI prevention

In this video, Christian Moro, PhD, BSc, BEd, MBus, SFHEA, shares the take-home message from the European Urology Focus paper, “Cranberry Juice, Cranberry Tablets, or Liquid Therapies for Urinary Tract Infection: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.” Moro is associate dean of External Engagement and an associate professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine within the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine at Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia.

Transcription:

What is the take-home message for the practicing urologist?

The idea, I guess, is to try and...educate patients as well that their lifestyle...can very much influence UTIs. There's a lot of stress and anxiety about UTIs. People are concerned about them. They change their underwear choice. They don't swim in dirty water. So people are aware of it, and there is a bit of that anxiety around it, which is a concern to a lot of people. However, the benefit is just to keep educating. If they don't like cranberry juice, increase fluids, perhaps recommend certain things. There are things [such as] dietary interventions that we can do that do seem to have some benefits, and part of that is getting that education out there, and the more that we can educate in ways to look after ourselves and at the very least avoid chronic dehydration, things that were already recommended anyway. It's one of those things that the aim here is to try and avoid the infections and then avoid that reliance upon antibiotics if we can, in an area where there's so much microbial resistance. It's growing and enlarging in what these bugs are resistant to every year.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Scientifically, it makes a bit of sense. There are some chemicals that do influence bacteria adhesion to the wall, so it's something that there does seem to be an effective basis, or at least a theoretical basis behind cranberry. But once again, the fact that the promising thing there, that even increased fluids, it wasn't as effective. But increased fluids did help as well. So just keep people hydrated, keep them making sure they're looking after themselves. We are finding more and more information and evidence to support recommendations to try and reduce the infection rates, but then also the impact of these sorts of infections.

This transcript was edited for clarity.