Rate and Associated Factors Influencing the Urine Culture Contamination in a University Hospital in Southern Thailand

Abstract

        A cross-sectional analytic study aimed to investigate the rate and associated factors of urine culture contamination. Patients aged at least two years old who visited Songklanagarind hospital and had a urine culture result from which the urine was collected from mid-stream urine or catheterization were included in the study. The data was collected between January and December of 2022 from the urine culture results of 6,655 patients from the hospital information system (HIS). The descriptive statistics, the Chi-squared test, and the multiple logistic regression analyses were performed for statistical analysis.     
The results revealed that the majority of patients were aged between 60 and 70 years (34.08%). Most of them were female (60.54%). The overall contamination rate was 5.71%. The factors that contributed to  the increased rate of urine culture contamination were female gender (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.03-1.61), the age range 20-79 years (OR = 2.02-2.52), and the body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2 (OR = 1.74, 95% CI = 1.08-2.81) whereas the urine culture results from an emergency unit were found to reduce the rate of contamination (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.47-0.78).      
         This study provided evidence of the rate and associated factors that affect urine culture contamination. As a result, patients of female gender, aged 20–79 years, and BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 may require special instructions during the urine collection phase. Moreover, the urgent process in urine cultures of the emergency unit could be used as a reference procedure for other departments to reduce the urine contamination rate in the hospital setting.