Characteristics of Hospital Acquired Pressure Injury and Factors Affecting Its Development: A Retrospective Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Across the globe, Pressure Injury (PI) has been implicated billion costs annually and mortality were 60,000 deaths out of 2.5 million hospitalized patients from complication related to PI. Through avoiding PI will avoid the incidence of other illnesses, decrease the financial costs and improve the quality of life for our patients. OBJECTIVE Therefore, this retrospective study aimed to identify most influential factors which increase the risk of developing pressure injuries among hospitalized patients at a university hospital according to the Waterlow scale. METHODS Data were collected retrospectivity including patients who developed pressure injury during January 2016 to December 2018 were evaluated using Waterlow pressure injury risk assessment tool at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The analysis was performed in 95% confidence interval using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), version 23.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board and the Research Ethics Committee. RESULTS Total 272 cases were included in this study. Highest number of cases belong to age group 50 to 64 years, 83 (30.5%). The majority had stage 2 pressure ulcer, 165 (60.7%). The most frequent location of pressure ulcer was ‘back’, 97 (35.7%). History of undergoing major surgery was statistically significantly associated with higher stage of pressure ulcer (p-value .040). The mean Waterlow pressure injury score for all cases was 27.19 ± 13.143. There is a moderate uphill correlation between neurological deficit score and Waterlow PI score was observed, (Correlation coefficient: .447, p. <.001). Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed increasing age is a significant predictive factor for developing higher stages of pressure ulcer (p .046). CONCLUSIONS This study indicated that major surgery, neurological deficit, low hemoglobin, and increasing age are strong predictors for developing higher stages of pressure injury. Therefore, health care contributors should consider these risks when applying a comprehensive pressure injury management plan.