Comparative Effectiveness of Different Oral Antibiotics Regimens for Treatment of Urinary Tract Infection in Outpatients: An Analysis of National Representative Claims Database

This study compares the effectiveness of different oral antibiotics for treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) in outpatients. It uses a large database of patients in Taiwan to see which antibiotics lead to fewer treatment failures, defined as hospitalizations or emergency department visits for UTI. The study found that norfloxacin and ofloxacin were more effective than trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) or ciprofloxacin in preventing treatment failures, especially in women without complications.

• 1
  Norfloxacin had the lowest treatment failure rate compared to TMP-SMX in crude estimate (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.57–0.94), individual covariate adjustment (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.54–0.90), and propensity score matched analysis (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.54–1.00).
• 2
  Ofloxacin treatment when compared with TMP-SMX, was associated with significant lower risk for treatment failure in covariate-adjusted analysis (OR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.62–0.99).
• 3
  Both ofloxacin and norfloxacin show a significant lower rate for treatment failure as compared with ciprofloxacin treatment in crude, covariate-adjusted and PS-matched analysis.