Prevalence and Risk Factors of Pressure Injury in Home Care Patients

The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of pressure injury in home care patients and the risk factors that affected its occurrence. The study was conducted in a descriptive-cross-sectional design to 6 months between November 2021 and May 2022 with 170 home care patients who were registered to the Home Health Care Service at a public hospital a city western in Turkey and met the inclusion criteria. The data were collected with the in-person interview method by using the investigator-created Patient Evaluation Form, National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP) Pressure Injury Staging System, and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). The prevalence of pressure injury was found to be 33.5% in the study. The prevalence of pressure injury was statistically and significantly higher in the patients younger than 75 years of age (p = .043), underweight, and with normal Body Mass Index (BMI) (p = .009). The prevalence of pressure injury was found to be lower in those who were oriented according to GCS (p = .000). No statistically significant differences were detected between the presence of pressure injury and gender, education levels, marital status, income status, presence of systemic or chronic disease, continuous medication use, type of medication used, and duration of receiving home care services (p > .05). The results of the present study showed that the prevalence of pressure injury was high in home care patients and that age, BMI, and level of consciousness variables were factors that influenced the development of pressure injury.