Aim:

To determine the construct and criterion validity, quality indices of sensitivity, specificity and efficiency of the Braden and Norton Scales in adult patients hospitalized.

Methods:

Validation of diagnostic technologies nested in a prospective cohort. Inclusion criteria: be 18 years old or older and do not have pressure ulcer at admission. Criterion validity was assessed by sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, quality indices and AUC, relative risk.

Results:

938 people tested, 5.1% (95% CI 3.6 - 6.4) had at least one pressure ulcer. It was calculated for the cutoffs ≤18 Braden and ≤17 Norton sensitivities of 89.8 and 83.7% and quality indices of 0.82 and 0.77, respectively; quality indices of specificity showed values below 0.20.

Conclusion:

The Braden scale presented a better balance in its psychometric properties for individual risk assessment of developing UPP; however, the quality indices for the specificity of both scales reveal poor performance.

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