Review of literature on pressure ulcers in people aged 65 or over
Fuentelsaz Gallego C., Hernández Fabà E., Bermejo Caja C., Hermoso Villar P., Gallart Vivé E., Blasco García C

SUMMARY

Findings of a survey performed to review scientific literature published in the last seven years on epidemiological aspects, risk factors and measures for the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers in people aged 65 or over.

The defined search strategy was used in the following databases: CINAHL, CUIDEN, COCHRANE and MEDLINE in May and June 2003. Inclusion criteria for articles were: articles published between 1997 and 2003; geographical area of the survey: USA, Canada and Europe; language of publication: English, French and Spanish; subjects of the survey aged 65 or over.

Eighty five out of the 102 identified references were removed as they were present in more than one database or did not comply with the search criteria, so 17 articles were used to performed this review.

The small amount of surveys on pressure ulcers in people aged 65 or over which have been found, a vast number of which have been performed in Spain, show a high degree of variability and some of them have significant methodological problems.

KEY WORDS

Decubitus ulcer, pressure sore, aged, literature review.

Vol. 16 nº3-2005