Urinary Tract Infection- Knowledge and Habitual Practices among Adolescent Girls Residing in College Hostel of Mangaluru, India: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is a common infection among female adolescents, causing significant distress in the hospital or community settings. Most of the issues related to UTI could be prevented by adequate knowledge and safe habitual practices. Within the context of reproductive health services, nurses or nursing students being healthcare providers are typically expected to have knowledge on the causes of UTI, methods of preventing and managing such conditions and teaching the same to young girls and women. Education provided to women, particularly adolescents, by nurses and by trainers who have relevant experience and knowledge may ensure proper hygiene practices. Aim: To determine the level of knowledge, expressed habitual practice among 82 adolescent girls of a selected nursing college hostel. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted between June 2019 and December 2019. Tools included structured questionnaire on knowledge of UTI and a rating scale on expressed habitual practice on UTI prevention. All the 82 students of 1st BSc Nursing from the study institute were recruited. Adolescent girls who have undergone training on prevention of UTI in nursing curriculum and who had congenital defects of urinary system were excluded from the study. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 18.69±0.46 years. Total 13.4% experienced UTI in their life time. In terms of overall knowledge score, out of 82 subjects, around 40.2% had average (scoring between 8-10 out of 14) and few (28%) had good knowledge (≥11) on UTI prevention. In terms of overall expressed habitual practice, majority (53.7%) had average practice (score between 26-33 out of 46) whereas, 4.9% had unsafe practice (score ≤25). The Karl Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.1 and showed weak positive correlation between knowledge and expressed habitual practice. Association was found between experience of UTI p-value<0.001 and expressed habitual practice. Conclusion: Pooled results showed overall knowledge and expressed habitual practice was average and safe. Healthcare professionals, especially primary care givers such as nurses and nursing students, have the responsibility to broadcast proper information about UTI so that women/adolescents can identify the causes, risk factors, symptoms of UTI in early stages thereby preventing the mortality and morbidity related to UTI.