Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a life-threatening and fatal problem for community-dwelling
older adults, and its prevalence in both sexes increases with age. UTI has a significant impact on the
overall health of older adults. It can lead to increased morbidity and mortality, as well as impose a
societal economic burden. Gerontological nurses are the key responsible for applying education
nursing programs in order to promote preventive measures, provide patient education, and evaluate
evidence-based practice (EBP) approaches to reduce UTI in community-dwelling older adults.
Objective: Determine the effect of education nursing program on preventive practices of urinary tract
infection among community-dwelling older adults. Setting: Damanhour National Medical Institute in
El Behera Governorate, Egypt, in two outpatient clinics namely; urology clinic and internal medicine
clinic. Subjects: A convenience sample of 50 community-dwelling older adults who did not have UTI.
Tools: Five tools were used for data collection: I. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), II.
Urinary Tract Infection Symptoms Assessment (UTISA), III. Community-dwelling Older Adults' Sociodemographic
and Clinical Data Structured Interview Schedule, IV. Community-dwelling Older Adults'
Knowledge about Preventive practices of UTI Assessment Sheet, and V. Community-dwelling Older
Adults' UTI Preventive practices Checklist. Results: There were significant improvements in the study
subjects' knowledge and practice levels in all areas of knowledge and practice about UTI after the
implementation of the study intervention and the differences were statistically significant. The
proposed education nursing program had a highly significant effect on the study subjects' UTI
preventive practices (0.96) for knowledge and (0.91) for practice. Conclusion: The proposed
education nursing program had a highly significant effect on preventive practices regarding UTI and
observed statistically significant differences between the prior to and immediately after the program.
This improvement has been regretted over time (six weeks post-program), but is still better than
before. Recommendations: A written UTI preventive practice guidelines should be developed by an
interdisciplinary team comprised of physicians, gerontological nurses, and other health care
providers for managing UTI in outpatient clinics for older adults. These guidelines should be reviewed
and updated on a regular basis.