Cranberry Products Can Reduce Risk for Symptomatic UTIs

MONDAY, May 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Cranberry products reduce the risk for symptomatic, culture-verified urinary tract infections (UTIs), especially in specific populations, according to a review published online April 17 in the Cochrane Library.

Gabrielle Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H., from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Australia, and colleagues examined the effectiveness of cranberry products in preventing UTI in susceptible populations. Twenty-six studies were added for this update, resulting in 50 included studies with 8,857 randomly assigned participants. A total of 45 studies compared cranberry products to placebo or no specific treatment; 26 of these could be meta-analyzed.

The researchers found that cranberry products reduced the risk for UTIs based on moderate-certainty evidence (risk ratio, 0.70). When studies were categorized according to treatment indication, cranberry products reduced the risk for symptomatic, culture-verified UTIs in women with recurrent UTIs, children, and those with a susceptibility to UTIs due to an intervention (risk ratios, 0.74, 0.46, and 0.47, respectively). Little or no benefit was seen in elderly institutionalized men and women, pregnant women, or adults with neuromuscular bladder dysfunction with incomplete bladder emptying (based on low-certainty evidence).

“This is a review of the totality of the evidence and as new evidence emerges, new findings might occur,” a coauthor said in a statement. “In this case, the new evidence shows a very positive finding that cranberry juice can prevent UTI in susceptible people.”

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