Do individuals with a stoma recognize peristomal skin disorders? Results from the Dialogue study

Introduction:

Peristomal skin disorders are common. However, only a minority of ostomates seem to acknowledge this and seek professional help (Herlufsen et al., 2006).

Aims & Methods:

The aim was to investigate how well people with a colostomy, ileostomy or urostomy are aware of their peristomal skin condition, and identify variables that correlate with their awareness. This is a part of the Dialogue study, an open label non-comparative multi-national Post-Marketing study of ostomy appliances, with a focus on skin conditions and quality of life.

Data were collected from 2008 to 2010 with two interviews and clinical examinations, 6-8 weeks apart. The participants were asked if a peristomal skin disorder existed. The questions were followed by a skin assessment, performed by the investigator using the Ostomy skin tool (Martins, Tavernelli, and Serrano, 2008). The study is ongoing.

Written informed consent was obtained from all the subjects and the study was approved by appropriate ethical committees in each country.

The method that will be used for statistical analyses is Logistic regression with random patient effects.

Results:

Data for over 2000 subjects living in nine different countries will be presented.

Conclusion: We hope that our results will lead to improvements in patient education and peristomal skin care in people with an ostomy.