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Measurement of urine pH for epidemiological studies on bladder cancer

  • Cancer
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Abstract

Methods for efficiently identifying subjects with constantly acidic pH in epidemiological and clinical studies have not been assessed. We recruited 30 volunteers to estimate the minimum number of urine pH measurements using pH strips needed to identify subjects with “constantly acidic urine pH” Spearman’s correlation coefficients between urine pH measured with a pH meter and with the four pH strips ranged from 0.94 to 0.95 (p < 0.001 for all four strips). Overall agreement within ±0.5 pH units between the four strips and the pH meter ranged from 62.2% to 74.4%. When using a spot urine sample from a single morning to classify participants with respect to their urine pH, 80% of individuals fell into the acidic urine pH (pH equal to or lower than 6.0) group. When we required subjects to have urine pH equal to or lower than 6.0 in six consecutive AM spot urine samples and seven spot PM urine samples, only 20% of participants fulfilled this criterion. Measuring urine pH twice a day (early in the morning and early in the evening) during four consecutive days classified individuals in the same way as two daily measurements for one week. A single pH measurement from a spot urine sample is not reliable to identify individuals with constantly acidic pH. Morning and evening urine pH measurements with pH strips during four consecutive days identify individuals with constantly acidic urine pH individuals as well as one week of measurements, and thus might be useful to identify subjects with constantly acidic urine pH in epidemiological and clinical studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Juan Alguacil, Ruth M. Pfeiffer, Lee E. Moore, Roel Vermeulen, Mustafa Dosemeci, Debra T. Silverman, Nathaniel Rothman & Montserrat García-Closas

  2. Departamento de Biología Ambiental y Salud Pública, Universidad de Huelva, Avda Fuerzas Armadas, s/n, Huelva, 21071, Spain

    Juan Alguacil

  3. Servicio de Urología, Hospital de Cabueñes, Gijón, Spain

    Manuel Rivas del Fresno

  4. Servicio de Urología, Hospital Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, Spain

    Rafael Medina-Lopez

  5. Respiratory and Environmental Health Research Unit, Municipal Institute of Medical Research, Barcelona, Spain

    Manolis Kogevinas

  6. Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Roel Vermeulen

Authors
  1. Juan Alguacil
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  2. Ruth M. Pfeiffer
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  3. Lee E. Moore
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  4. Manuel Rivas del Fresno
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  5. Rafael Medina-Lopez
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  6. Manolis Kogevinas
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  7. Roel Vermeulen
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  8. Mustafa Dosemeci
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  9. Debra T. Silverman
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  10. Nathaniel Rothman
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  11. Montserrat García-Closas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Alguacil.

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Alguacil, J., Pfeiffer, R.M., Moore, L.E. et al. Measurement of urine pH for epidemiological studies on bladder cancer. Eur J Epidemiol 22, 91–98 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-006-9101-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-006-9101-2

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