Urinary Tract Infections and Sexual Activity in Young Women

A group of 147 young women with symptomatic urinary tract infection (UTI) were compared with a control group of 105 symptom-free young women belonging to the same population. On logistic-regression analysis, sexual activity was the only significant and independent behavioral difference between the groups (87% of women with UTI were sexually active vs 32.7% of the control group). Of the 147 episodes of UTI, only 28.9% occurred within 24 hours of sexual intercourse; of 24 episodes that occurred during follow-up, the percentage that occurred within 24 hours of intercourse was 33.3%. This finding is in discordance with the close temporal association between UTI and sexual intercourse reported in previous studies.