Do external urine collection devices reduce contamination in urine samples for women with symptoms of urinary tract infection? A systematic review.

Introduction: To evaluate the impact of external urine collection devices (UCD) on contamination of urine samples in women with symptoms of urinary tract infection.

Methods: This review was conducted according to the Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy guidelines (PROSPERO CRD42021241758). PubMed was searched for paired sample studies and controlled trials. Studies comparing UCDs with non-invasive urine collection procedures were considered.

Results: Only two studies were found. Neither of the two studies found any difference regarding contamination between specimens collected with the UCDs compared and non-invasive techniques. In the largest study, including 1264 symptomatic women, 18.8% of those allocated to UCDs failed to collect urine samples successfully.

Conclusions: More studies involving women with symptoms of urinary tract infection are needed to produce more robust data on the impact of these devices on urine contamination rates.