Abstract

SOLDEVILLA AGREDA, José Javier; TORRA I BOU, Joan-Enric; VERDU SORIANO, José  and  LOPEZ CASANOVA, Pablo. 3^rd National Survey of the Prevalence of Pressure Ulcers in Spain, 2009: Epidemiology and defining variables in lesions and patients. Gerokomos [online]. 2011, vol.22, n.2, pp.77-90. ISSN 1134-928X.

Ascertaining the scale of a health problem is, without a doubt, the necessary -and most efficient- first step to approaching it in preventive and therapeutic terms. With this philosophy in mind, the GNEAUPP has since its creation sought to establish epidemiological values for pressure ulcers (or bedsores) in Spain, at the same time determining aspects connected with preventive measures in the different care contexts (primary, specialised and long-term healthcare). To this end it has conducted three national surveys of prevalence, in 2001, 2005 and 2009. The postal questionnaire was the instrument used to estimate specific and average prevalence on the basis of a non-random sample. Through these questionnaires primary care staff were asked to supply information about their list of users aged over 14 (in the case of basic care units for general medicine) and staff of hospital units or long-term care centres were asked about the patients in their respective units. Prevalence was defined as "specific prevalence" (information at a specific point in time). Gross prevalence (GP) and average prevalence (AP) were calculated. In the 2009 survey data was reported for 1,596 patients with pressure ulcers. 625 of these came from hospital questionnaires (39.2% of the total of patients), 347 (21.7%) from primary healthcare centres and the remaining 624 (39.1%) from long-term care centres. Of these, 1.344 (84.2%) were patients with pressure ulcers aged over 65, of whom 324 (24.1%) were from primary healthcare centres, 474 (40.6%) from hospitals and 546 (35.3%) from long-term care centres. In primary healthcare GP stood at 5.89% for patients aged over 14 including those in the home care programme; in hospital units GP was 7.2% and AP was 10.05% ± 13.24 % (average 6.25), while in long-term care centres GP was 6.39% and AP was 7.35% ± 6.4% (average 5.55). The questionnaires returned provided information about a total of 2,468 lesions, 1,031 pressure ulcers in hospitals, 914 in primary care (37%) and 523 in longterm care (21.2%). Of these, 21.2% were stage I, 42.4% were stage II, 22.8% were stage III, 12% were stage IV and 1.6% not specified at any stage. The most frequent location was the sacrum (28%), followed by the heels (7.6%), trochanters (7.6%) and malleoli (6.6%).

Keywords : Pressure ulcers; epidemiology; prevalence; Spain.

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