Prevalence of Bacterial Urinary Tract Infection, Associated Risk Factors, and Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) brought a significant and serious health-related problem that may lead to the subsequent development of serious indications with the challenge of the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the choice of antibiotics depends on the accuracy of the diagnostic tool of UTIs to minimize false results that may subject patients to wrong treatments. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of bacteriuria, associated factors, and AMR pattern of UTI-suspected patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to May 2022, at Arsho Advanced Medical Laboratory (AAML), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Species identification and isolation from bacterial colonies were characterized by gram stain and biochemical properties followed by antibiotic susceptibility testing using the Kirby-Bauer method on Muller-Hinton agar. Logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the association between the independent variables and significant bacterial growth to identify factors that affect the prevalence of UTI. A test is considered statistically significant that has a P value less than 0.05. RESULTS: Out of 141 (31.6%) which yielded significant bacteriuria, 16 different species of bacterial uropathogens were identified. A total of 105/446 (91 Gram-negative and 14 Gram-positive) of bacterial growth in the female gender and 36/446 (33 Gram-negative and 3 Gram positive) in male were observed with a P value of 0.03. The most predominant bacteria were E. coli followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae. Amoxicillin had shown the highest resistance rate (100%) followed by Ampicillin (98.9%). Females and participants with previous infections were shown to be associated with significant bacterial growth. CONCLUSION: Based on our study finding, the ordinarily used antibiotics seem to face emerging resistant strains, which needs considerable and due attention to the impact of UTI in developing countries including Ethiopia. History of previous UTIs and female gender were shown to be possible risk factors associated with UTIs.