Screening for bacteriuria in Japanese school children.

Bacteriuria was screened among 28,202 healthy school children, 14,575 boys and 13,627 girls, by dipstick and dipslide methods and also by pour plate culture. The prevalence of bacteriuria was 0.06% in boys and 0.52% in girls after the third screening. A high rate of false negative results with the dipstick test and a high rate of false positive results with the dipslide culture method using Microstix-3 were observed. About 60% of screened children continued to have bacteriuria persistently for 9 months after the third screening, which was followed by monthly urine cultures. Anomalies of the urinary tract were detected in 9 of 26 children with persistent bacteriuria.