title: The development of a pressure area scoring system for critically ill patients: a pilot study.
abstract: At present no suitably sensitive scoring system is available to differentiate degrees of risk of developing pressure sores in critically ill people. The object of this study is to produce a tool that has been validated to identify and weight risk factors associated with critically ill patients. In a pilot study data were collected on 50 patients and analysed, using multiple regression analysis, to produce a set of weighted coefficients (C) suitable for use as a scoring system. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated and five highly significant factors are described: adrenaline infusions (C = 14), noradrenaline infusions (C = 15), diabetes (C = 15), restricted movement (traction, post-operative pain, intra-aortic balloon pump and haemofiltration) (C = 8) and patients too unstable to turn (C = 17). All coefficients not equal to 0 with p < 0.05. Risk factors which may become significant in a larger study are identified. In order to develop the full tool a further multi-centre study is proposed.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Batson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adam
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Quirke
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research; D003422:Critical Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010865:Pilot Projects; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000451:nursing*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index