Objective: To investigate the relationship between admission hypotension and hospital acquired pressure ulcers (PU) among older patients in an emergency department.
Methods: The study was a prospective cohort conducted between March and May 2017 in the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital in Eastern China. Data on PUs and possible PU risk factors were collected using a pre-designed form. Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate the adjusted odds ratio (OR).
Results: A total of 157 older patients were included in the study. PU incidence was 8.3%, with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 4.5 to 13.7%. The majority (76.9%) of PUs developed in the first three days of admission. On admission, 28 patients were found to be hypotensive, and 129 non-hypotensive. In the hypotensive group, PU incidence was 21.4% (6/28), and 5.4% (7/129) in the non-hypotensive group, respectively. The crude OR was 4.753 (95%CI: 1.183 to 18.086). After adjustment by patients' age, admission to emergency intensive care unit and if requiring assistance to move, the adjusted OR of hypotension on admission for PU risk was 1.755 (95%CI: 1.356 to 3.224).
Conclusion: Our study showed that admission hypotension was an independent risk factor of PU among elderly patients in emergency department. However, this conclusion should be confirmed by further studies with large sample size.
Keywords: admission hypotension; emergency departments; hospital acquired pressure ulcer; older patients.