Background: Leakage is a common problem for people with a stoma.
Aim: To investigate how people with a stoma and stoma care nurses perceive different patterns of effluent under the baseplate.
Methods: The Ostomy Life Study 2019 included a user survey and a nurse survey covering experiences of leakage and the perception of leakage.
Findings: Most people with a stoma perceived effluent reaching outside the baseplate as leakage (88-90%), whereas effluent close to the stoma only was not perceived as leakage by the majority (81-91%). Effluent covering major parts of the baseplate was perceived as leakage by most respondents with a colostomy or ileostomy (83%), whereas fewer respondents with a urostomy perceived this as leakage (57%). Most of the nurses (70%) did not perceive effluent close to the stoma as leakage.
Conclusion: This study revealed that effluent confined to the area next to the stoma is generally not perceived as leakage.
Keywords: Effluent; Leakage; Ostomy; Perception; Peristomal skin complications; Survey.