title: Personality and Behavioral Predictors of Pressure Ulcer History.
abstract: PURPOSE: To assess the relationship of psychological, environmental, and behavioral factors with pressure ulcers (PUs) in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI).  METHODS: A total of 1,549 participants from a large rehabilitation hospital in the southeast United States answered questions regarding outcomes after SCI. Variables from each set of factors were entered sequentially into the model: (1) psychological and environmental, and (2) behavioral.  RESULTS: Forty-eight percent of participants reported having a PU in the past year. After entering behavioral variables into the model, all environmental and psychological variables became nonsignificant. Odds of having a PU increased 28% with each psychotropic medication taken weekly. Persons who smoked one or more packs of cigarettes daily had 2.82 times the odds of having a PU than persons who did not smoke. Increased hours out of bed were protective against PUs.  CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the importance of health behaviors in the occurrence of PUs after SCI. These health behaviors provide important targets for intervention for health care providers.
authors: Department of Health Sciences and Research, College of Health Professions, Medical University South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina.
authors: Lee L
authors: LL
authors: Saunders
authors: James S
authors: JS
authors: Krause