A study on incontinence-associated dermatitis prevalence among homecare patients

Purpose:

To prevent breakdown of skin is one of the homecare nursing missions. Furthermore, it is a challenge for nurses to prevent the incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD). The IAD not only contributes to skin ulcer, but also increases patient’s pain and medical burden. Thus, to prevent and assess for IAD is a very important issue. The study was to examine the prevalence of homecare patients with IAD, and use Perineal Assessment Tool (PAT) to assess the risk of IAD.

Method:

This is a Cross-sectional study. Data was collected from 163 patients who were in homecare unit of a medical centre on June, 2012. The variables included demographic characteristics, clinical data and PAT scores. Wilcoxon-Mann U test was used to analyze the difference of PAT scores between patents with and without IAD.

Results:

The majority of participants were female (57.1%), average age was 83.1±11.5. Most patients had never taken antibiotics (93.3%), 92.6% (n = 151) had either incontinence or diarrhea. There are 8 patients were diagnose with IAD. The overall prevalence of IAD was 5.3% (8 of 151). In addition, the PAT scores of the patients with IAD (M=8.0, SD=1.1) was higher than those of the patients without IAD (M=6.9, SD=1.2) .There was a significant difference in the mean score (p=.01).

Conclusion:

IAD is an important clinical care indicator. This study explores the prevention and assessment for IAD. In term of assessment, PAT is an useful tool. Based on the results, we suggest that nurse should provide an effective assessment and a specific intervention for the high risk patients to decrease the incidence of IAD and improve the quality of care.