ReviewCureus2021
Efficacy of Probiotics as Prophylaxis for Urinary Tract Infections in Premenopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Cureus, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Development of a PapG-AcmA surface-associated antigen on Lactobacillus reuteri as a vaccine strategy against uropathogenic Escherichia coli.Archives of microbiology · 2026Article
- Beyond Antibiotics: Therapeutic Strategies Utilizing Probiotics and Bacteriophages Against Drug-ResistantMicroorganisms · 2026Review
- Effects of Heat-Killed Probiotic Strains on Biofilm Formation, Transcription of Virulence-Associated Genes, and Prevention of UTIs in Mice.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2025Article
- Role of Gut and Urinary Microbiome in Children with Urinary Tract Infections: A Systematic Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- An Overview of the Association of the Urinary Tract Microbiome with Various Diseases and Implications for Therapeutics.Mini reviews in medicinal chemistry · 2025Review
- Antimicrobial Potential of Probiotic Strains From Bulgarian Cheese and Shallot Yogurt AgainstBioMed research international · 2024Article
- Therapeutic effects of orally administration of viable and inactivated probiotic strains against murine urinary tract infection.Journal of food and drug analysis · 2023Review
- Young Women's Attitudes and Behaviors in Treatment and Prevention of UTIs: Are Biomedical Students at an Advantage?Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Competitive Inoculation as an Effective Prophylaxis Against Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections: A Systematic Review.International neurourology journal · 2023Article
- Emerging Non-Antibiotic Options Targeting Uropathogenic Mechanisms for Recurrent Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infection.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Examination of Complementary Medicine for Treating Urinary Tract Infections Among Pregnant Women and Children.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAlthough antibiotic therapy has been the mainstay of prophylaxis and treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs), antibacterial resistance has led to increased incidence of infections and healthcare spending in both community-acquired and nosocomial UTIs. This has led to an active exploration of alternative remedies for both the prophylaxis and treatment of UTIs, especially in women with recurrent urinary tract infections. Probiotic supplementation is one novel intervention that has been studied as a prophylactic measure in patients with UTIs. The current systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of probiotics for prophylaxis in UTIs in premenopausal women.
methodsDetailed search strategies for each electronic database were developed for PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus to identify relevant literature published between 2001-2021. RevMan 5.3 statistical software was used to analyze data in studies. The random-effects model was used for pooling the data. The risk of bias and study quality were assessed using Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias in included studies. The scope of focus for this review was premenopausal adult women with a history of one or more UTI. The intervention consisted of a probiotic regimen for which the goal was to enhance the defensive microflora of the urogenital tract. Studies comparing a probiotic regimen to a placebo regimen were included. These studies' primary outcome was the proportion of women with at least one symptomatic bacterial UTI in each group (i.e., UTI recurrence rate) in the 12-month period following probiotic intervention. This study extends the work of researchers who systematically investigated the scientific literature on probiotics in the prevention of urinary tract infections with a particular focus on premenopausal women.
resultsAfter screening, three parallel-group randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) were included. We estimated the overall pooled data of these three studies with a total of 284 participants to have met the predefined inclusion criteria and were therefore included in this review. The results demonstrated that probiotics did not have a significant effect in the prophylaxis of UTIs. (Risk Ratio (RR): 0.59 confidence interval (CI): 0.26, 1.33), Heterogeneity: Chi² = 6.63, df = 2 (
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