Multicenter prospective cohort study, to validate the Italian version of the Braden Q scale for the risk of pressure sores in newborns and up to 8 years old children.
Introduction: Children admitted to Intensive care Units (ICU), oncology and neurology/neurosurgery wards are at risk of developing pressure sores.
Aim: To validate the Italian version of the Braden Q scale for the assessment of the risk of developing pressure sores in children.
Methods: Children from 21 days to 8 years, admitted to intensive and sub intensive units were recruited. Premature babies, children admitted with a pressure sore and with a story of congenital cardiomiopathy were excluded. In this cohort, multicentre and with repeated measurements study, the first assessment was performed after 24 hours from hospital admission, using the Braden Q Scale (Suddaby's version). The pressure sores were assessed with the Skin assessment Tool and staged according to the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel. RESULTS. On the 157 children 524 observation were conducted. The incidence of pressure sores was 17.2%. Only the analysis on specific subgroups of patients showed a good diagnostic accuracy: 71.4% on children 3-8 years; 85.6% in sub intensive wards.
Conclusions: The Braden Q scale may be reliably used and shows a good diagnostic accuracy in children 3-8 years of age admitted to sub-intensive, neurology, oncology and heamatology wards.