Comparison of sampling methods for urine cultures

Purpose: To compare efficacy and cost of conventional and alternative sampling methods concerning urine cultures. Design and Methods: An experimental study with two replications was carried out in a 900-bed university hospital in Ankara, Turkey. The sample was 160 hospitalized female patients, who were asked to give urine specimens, September 10, 2000 and September 1, 2001. They were patients on urology and obstetrics and gynaecology wards. The authors informed the patients about the study first and then obtained two samples from each patient under their observation. The number of specimens was 320. Statistical methods were descriptive. Findings: The rates of contamination and significant growth, respectively, were 4.4% and 7.5% for the conventional method and 5.6% and 10% for the alternative method. The cost per culture was 2.588.257 TL (2.10 USD) for the conventional method and 57.021TL (0.05 USD) for the alternative method. The cost difference was statistically significant. Conclusions: The two methods yielded similar results but the alternative method was less expensive.