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. 2025 Feb 8;15(1):4702.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-89240-5.

Epidemiological trends and predictions of urinary tract infections in the global burden of disease study 2021

Yining He #  1 , Jing Zhao #  1 , Lanhui Wang  1 , Chao Han  1   2 , Ruxue Yan  1 , Peiqi Zhu  1 , Tianyang Qian  1 , Siyao Yu  1 , Xiaolin Zhu  3 , Weiming He  4
Affiliations

Epidemiological trends and predictions of urinary tract infections in the global burden of disease study 2021

Yining He et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are prevalent; however, comprehensive and current epidemiological data remain scarce. This study examined the global, national, and regional burden of UTIs by sex, age, and socio-demographic index (SDI) from 1990 to 2021. The 2021 Global Burden of Disease study included age-standardised incidence rate (ASIR), age-standardised prevalence rate (ASPR), age-standardised death rate (ASDR), and age-standardised disability-adjusted life years rate (ASDAR). The estimated annual percentage change was used to depict temporal trends, whereas Pearson correlation analysis explore its correlation with the human development index (HDI), the SDI, and age-standardised rates (ASRs). An autoregressive integrated moving average model forecasted the UTI burden trends. From 1990 to 2021, the number of UTI cases increased by 66.45%, reaching 4.49 billion cases, with an ASIR of 5,531.88 per 100,000 population. The greatest incidence of UTIs was seen in women and older adult men. Tropical Latin America and low-middle SDI regions exhibited the highest ASIR, ASPR, ASDR, and ASDAR, while East Asia showed the lowest. ASDR and ASDAR decreased with higher SDI levels. ASR and HDI were weakly positively correlated with ASDR and ASDAR. ASIR, ASPR, and ASDAR are projected to increase until 2050. The global burden of UTIs is rising and is influenced by geographical location, age, sex, and economic development, crucial for guiding medical practices and forming relevant policies.

Keywords: Disability-adjusted life years; Global burden of disease study; Incidence; Mortality; Prevalence; Urinary tract infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval and consent to participate: This study did not require ethical approval or consent as it utilised available data from the GBD 2021 study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Global age-standardised rates of urinary tract infections by age and sex in 2021. (A) Age-standardised incidence rates; (B) Age-standardised prevalence rates; (C) Age-standardised deaths rates; (D) Age-standardised DALYs rates.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Burden of urinary tract infection trends in five SDI regions from 1990 to 2021. (A) Age-standardised incidence rates, (B) Age-standardised prevalence rates, (C) Age-standardised deaths rates, (D) Age-standardised DALYs rates. SDI, socio-demographic index; DALYs, disability-adjusted life-years.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Cluster analysis of disease burden trends in the GBD region from 1990 to 2021.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The global burden of urinary tract infections in countries or territories. (A) Age-standardised prevalence rates; (B) Age-standardised incidence rates; (C) Age-standardised deaths rates; (D) Age-standardised DALYs rates.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Future forecasts of global burden of urinary tract infections. (A) Age-standardised prevalence rates; (B) Age-standardised incidence rates; (C) Age-standardised deaths rates; (D) Age-standardised DALYs rates; (E) Number of incidence cases; (F) Number of prevalence cases; (G) Number of deaths cases; (H) Number of DALYs cases.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
The correlation of EAPCs in age-standardised incidence rate, prevalence rate, deaths rate, DALYs rate, with (A) ASR and (B) HDI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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