TY - JOUR T1 - Updated systematic review suggests that cranberry juice is not effective at preventing urinary tract infection JF - Evidence Based Nursing JO - Evid Based Nurs SP - 113 LP - 114 DO - 10.1136/eb-2012-101163 VL - 16 IS - 4 AU - Amy B Howell Y1 - 2013/10/01 UR - http://ebn.bmj.com/content/16/4/113.abstract N2 - Commentary on: Jepson RG, Williams G, Craig JC. Cranberries for preventing urinary tract infections. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;10:CD001321.OpenUrlPubMed 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. 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 … ER -