Cranberry Juice Infection Paper

“For decades, cranberry juice has been recommended by healthcare practitioners to prevent Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).” (Howell, 2013). Most commonly UTIs are found in women, statistics state that nearly 1 in 3 women will have a UTI that will require treatment before the age of 24 (Kidney Health Australia, 2015). The question to ask is does cranberry juice evidently prevents UTIs. This essay will identify the process required to develop a PICO question; this framework will establish a clinical investigation by gathering and ordering evidence to answer the question. Scenario 2 explains about a female student, Susan, who has attended her GP with symptoms of frequent urination, dysuria, lower flank pain and shivering. After the doctor has examined
Databases are collection of electronic papers of publications, data sets, statistics, journal articles, book chapters etc. All evidence is peer viewed and is up to date. In this case with the PICO question, the best chosen databases were: Joanna Briggs Institute, Cochrane Library, Medline, CINAHL, BMJ Best Practice. All of which are relevant to best practice within health care. For Joanna Briggs Institute and Cochrane Library, it is reliable and statistical evidence as articles have been systemically reviewed. Medline and CINAHL were useful with randomized controlled trials, article related specific to the question which helped to identify supportive evidence. Searching within each database is was essential to ensure that correct articles where found that correlate with the question, the use of AND/OR in the search engine helped to narrow down articles. Also the use of alternative words “Cystitis” and “UTIs” pinpointed articles more specific to the
Evidence found a significant reduction in reoccurrence of symptomatic UTIs and concludes that cranberry juice can be recommended as an alternative to antibiotics. However, there is no evidence for the volume and concentration ingested over a period of time. Wang (2012) meta-analysis supports that cranberry-containing product as a protective method against UTI. From the variety of groups that were studied, the most effective were women with recurrent UTIs. Overall, the study didn’t specifically focus on women but men, children and different ages. Further evidence is required to support the PICO question.
Howell (2013) systemic review suggests an opportunity of cranberry juice being an alternative to low dose antibiotics in prevention of UTI. Results indicated minor groups with less symptomatic UTI after ingesting cranberry juice, however, overall reduction compared to the placebo group was not greatly significant. This indicates further research to evidently support cranberry juice as an