UTIs are uncomfortable, but they’re no big deal. Usually, it’s a simple problem with a simple fix.
That is, if you’re relatively young. In older adults, UTIs are very common, and they’re far more risky.
For an elder, there’s no such thing as a ‘routine UTI,’ especially if they’re already dealing with other health issues. As simple as it seems to be, a UTI can quickly become a full-blown medical emergency because medical professionals missed the warning signs or because whoever is in charge of caring for the said elder isn’t doing a very thorough job.
In this article, we won’t deal with the worst-case scenario because you can already guess what that would be. Instead, we’ll take a look at what leads to it and why an aging body is facing a unique kind of risk.
Why UTIs Are Less Predictable in Older Adults
When it comes to older adults, UTIs don’t play by the same rules.
As you age, your body’s defense mechanism changes, and so do the communication networks.
We first need to address the immune system. As you could presume, the immune system of someone who’s 65+ years old isn’t as strong as that of a young adult. This also means that an older person will have a harder time fending off infection.
At the same time, the urinary tract itself goes through some changes.
Bladders might not empty all the way, tissues get thinner, and men often deal with prostate issues. This is all great news for bacteria because it all creates hiding spots for them to linger and makes everything about the infection more complicated.
On top of this, you need to remember that older adults can have many other conditions already.
Diabetes, for instance, can impair circulation and healing, so every single infection becomes harder to fight. Neurological diseases can mess with the brain’s ability to sense and communicate that something is wrong with the bladder.
Another thing that (typically) declines with age is kidney function.
This is also the reason why our bodies, once we get older, become much less efficient in filtering out toxins from our bodies. This has its own set of drawbacks, but in this context, the negative is that our bodies become less reliant on dealing with infection.
To make an already complicated situation even more mind-boggling, some common medications can mask the classic red flags.
A lot of older adults take anti-inflammatory drugs or painkillers that can suppress a fever. That’s a problem because fever is the way your body tells you it’s fighting an infection. Diuretics or simply not drinking enough fluids can cause dehydration, which makes the bacteria even more concentrated.
The result? All those textbook UTI symptoms you’re counting on seeing are nowhere to be found. Instead, you might see confusion or a sudden fall. In some cases, even lethargy.
The bottom line is that a UTI isn’t a localized problem when you’re dealing with an older adult. It’s something that stresses out their entire system, and it can escalate quickly because the infection can spread more easily and cause a ton of issues, even sepsis.
| Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common causes of sepsis in the U.S.; they account for approximately a quarter of all infection-related sepsis cases. – CDC |
If you look up ‘sepsis from UTI in elderly warning signs‘ online, you’ll notice that nobody is waiting for the classic symptoms. And if there’s ANY reason to suspect foul play, a lawyer who specializes in such cases should be consulted immediately.
How Missed Signals Turn Treatable Infections Into Emergencies
Everything you read is the reason why an infection that’s supposed to be manageable turns into an actual emergency.
| Sepsis was involved in over 200,000 U.S. deaths back in 2019, with 75% of these being in adults aged 65+ years. – CDC |
The biggest reasons professionals and the patients themselves miss the signals are that they don’t know what to look for.You’d expect a UTI to cause burning or pain, so when it doesn’t, you don’t see a UTI as a possible diagnosis.
In an older adult, this infection can show up as confusion or agitation that seemingly comes out of nowhere. Maybe the patient is just drowsy, or they have no appetite. The problem is that those are the same things you might chalk up to a slip in dementia, someone having a bad day, or the natural ups and downs of aging.
When an elder suddenly falls down, the first thought that comes to your head isn’t a UTI, right?
And that confusion causes delay.
There’s a common condition in older adults that’s called asymptomatic bacteriuria, which means the bacteria are present in urine, but it’s not causing any harm. If you treat it when you don’t need to, you’ll create a problem. So when a doctor sees vague symptoms and a positive urine test, they can’t tell right away if this is an actual problem or not.
During all this time, the UTI gets worse and worse.
And even when you treat it, you’ll need plenty of follow-ups to make sure the infection is truly gone.
Conclusion
You can’t panic every time an older patient sneezes, but when something seems off, and the obvious diagnosis isn’t the right fit, dig a little deeper.
Change your mindset from seeing a problem as a routine infection to what could be a potential system-stressor.
