CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY OF THE URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS IN THE FEMALE POPULATION OF UKRAINE. PART 2: ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL CARE

The purpose of this work was to analyze the frequency and structure of seeking medical assistance by patients with urinary tract infections (UTI) in the Ukraine, taking into account the main providers – providers of medical services for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease in correlation with the type of its course. Materials and Methods. The analysis of the respondents' medical histories reliably testifies that during the UTI debut self-treatment and non-medical care are factors favoring subsequent chronization of the disease, which determine the further trend towards recurrence. Results. The debut episode of UTI in 49.3% of women resulted in visiting a doctor, in 26.5% of cases patients sought help for their symptoms from pharmacists or nursing staff, and in 24.2% of cases the episode was diagnosed and treated by patients themselves. In case of a recurrent UTI episode 36.7% of the interviewed patients sought medical assistance, 13.2% received treatment on the recommendation of the pharmacist and other health workers, and self-treatment was reported by 48% of respondents. The detailed analysis of the health care visits pattern showed that 11.2% of patients received treatment from a urologist in the case of a debut episode and 17.4% in the case of a recurrent UTI episode, treatment from a gynecologist was received by 14.2% and 12.9% of patients respectively. Pharmacy workers were responsible for managing patients with this pathology in 20.9% and 13.2% of cases respectively. Main vectors of selftreatment were the advertising of medications (4.7% and 10.1%, respectively) and the Internet (10.2% and 14.2%), while in case of recurrent UTI episodes, the most important self-treatment strategy was the previous own experience of medicines administration (20.2%). Conclusions. A significant prevalence of self-treatment cases was noted at the debut of the disease among those patients, whose further course of pathology led to sporadic and frequently recurrent UTI forms (1.7 times and 2.2 times more often, respectively), while visits to doctors at the UTI debut in these cohorts of patients were somewhat less frequent (1.1 and 1.3 times respectively).