Diabetes and the Course of Febrile Urinary Tract Infection

Diabetes is considered a risk factor for acquisition of febrile urinary tract infection (UTI) (1,2), but there is a lack of information on the association of diabetes with the subsequent course of disease and its outcome. We performed a prospective observational multicenter cohort study including consecutive adults with community-onset febrile UTI presenting at 7 emergency departments and 35 primary care centers. The effect of preexisting diabetes on presentation and microbiological and clinical outcome was assessed and multivariable logistic regression performed to establish whether diabetes was an independent risk factor for a complicated course. View this table: Table 1 Baseline characteristics of 858 patients presenting with febrile UTI Of 858 patients, 140 had diabetes (93% type 2 diabetes), of whom 41 (30%) used insulin, 19 (14%) were managed by diet only, and the remaining were managed by a combination of metformin, insulin, and diet. Patients with diabetes were older (median age 73 years [interquartile range {IQR} 46–78] vs. 64 [IQR 42–77], P < 0.001), were more frequently male (48 vs. 35%, P = 0.006), and had a higher …