Pressure Ulcer Prevalence in People With Spinal Cord Injury: Age-Period-Duration Effects

• Published in: Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation Vol. 86; no. 6; pp. 1208 - 1213
• Main Authors: Chen, Yuying, DeVivo, Michael J., Jackson, Amie B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.06.2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Distribution; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biological and medical sciences; Black or African American; Black People; Cohort Studies; Dermatology; Educational Status; Female; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Multivariate Analysis; Nursing Homes; Patient Readmission; Pneumonia - complications; Pressure ulcer; Pressure Ulcer - classification; Pressure Ulcer - epidemiology; Prevalence; Pulmonary Atelectasis - complications; Pulmonary Embolism - complications; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Rehabilitation; Risk Factors; Single Person; Skin involvement in other diseases. Miscellaneous. General aspects; Spinal cord injuries; Spinal Cord Injuries - epidemiology; Time Factors; Unemployment; United States - epidemiology; Venous Thrombosis - complications; United States; North America; America; Longitudinal studies; Spinal cord injuries; Prevalence; Rehabilitation; Pressure ulcer; Skin disease; Prognosis; Multicenter study; Male; Epidemiology; Generalized; Cohort study; Age; Human; Nervous system diseases; Health staff; Ageing; Physician; Duration; Pressure sore; Confidence interval; Risk factor; Models; Elderly; Comparative study; African American
• ISSN: 0003-9993; 1532-821X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2004.12.023

Chen Y, DeVivo MJ, Jackson AB. Pressure ulcer prevalence in people with spinal cord injury: age-period-duration effects. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2005;86:1208–13. To examine age-period-duration patterns of the prevalence of pressure ulcers in community-residing people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Multicenter cohort study. Nine Model Spinal Cord Injury Systems throughout the United States. People with SCI (N=3361) injured between 1986 and 1995 and followed up thereafter on a yearly basis through 2002. Not applicable. Physician-confirmed pressure ulcers of stage II or greater at the follow-up visits. The multivariable generalized estimating equations model showed a significant trend toward increasing pressure ulcer prevalence in the recent years (1994–2002 vs 1984–1993: odds ratio=1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.2–1.6) not explained by aging, years since injury, or demographic and clinical factors. The risk of pressure ulcers appeared to be steady during the first 10 years and increased 15 years postinjury. Pressure ulcers were more common among the elderly, men, African Americans, singles, subjects with education less than high school, unemployed, subjects with complete injury, and subjects with history of pressure ulcers, rehospitalization, nursing home stay, and other medical conditions. Injury cause and level had no significant effect. These results highlight the need for research into factors that contribute to the increasing pressure ulcer prevalence.