Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Implications for practice and research
-
Not all cranberry products contain enough active proanthocyanidins (PACs) for clinical efficacy. Consumers should look for products containing 36 mg of PACs.
-
Cranberry is nearly as effective as low-dose antibiotics for urinary tract infection (UTI) prevention in women and children and does not cause antibiotic resistance.
-
If cranberry products are being recommended to patients, conclusions of this one review do not provide sufficient reasons to change current practices.
Context
UTIs are a significant public health challenge with more than 15 million cases in the USA each year, with their treatment accounting for 15% of all community-prescribed antibiotics at a cost of $500 million annually. For decades, cranberry juice and powders have been routinely recommended by healthcare practitioners for the prevention of UTIs. Meta-analyses of the clinical studies …