Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Adolescent Girls: II. Screening Methods

¹ Division of Adolescent Medicine, Children's Hospital Medical Center, and the Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Of 500 asymptomatic adolescent girls who were screened for bacteriuria by three methods—dipslide (Uricult), dipstrip (Microstix-3 reagent strips), and home nitrite test (Microstix-Nitrite reagent strips)—eight cases (1.6%) were detected: 6/8 by dipslide and dipstrip; 5/8 by nitrite testing. The false-positive-rate (> 10⁴ colonies/ml) of the dipslide test was 6.4%, and the dipstrip test, 2.8%. A history of vaginal discharge was not associated with "contaminated" specimens. False-positive nitrite tests were reported by 0.6% of the patients who returned the postcards.

Overall, 70.4% of the patients returned the postcards for the home nitrite test. The patients were divided by method of payment (Medicaid vs non-Medicaid) in order to provide an approximation of socioeconomic status; non-Medicaid patients were significantly more likely to return postcards than Medicaid patients (75.8% vs 63.7%). Of the group reporting previous urinary tract infection, 79% of both Medicaid and non-Medicaid patients returned postcards, suggesting that a prior experience with the diagnosis increased compliance with a home test.