The prevalence of skin tears among the elderly population living in the community of a Neotropical region
International Journal of Development Research
The prevalence of skin tears among the elderly population living in the community of a Neotropical region
Received 19th June 2020; Received in revised form 24th July 2020; Accepted 06th August 2020; Published online 23rd September 2020
Copyright © 2020, Ângela L Pereira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article seeks to identify the prevalence of skin tears and associated risk factors in from the elderly population living in a community in the neotropical Region of Central-Western Brazil. This is a cross-sectional study of 281 older people. Skin tears were found in 14 (5%; 95%CI: 2.8 – 8.2) of the participants. Age ≥75 (PR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.00-1.06), caucasian (PR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.01-1.07), being overweight (PR: 1.07; 95%CI: 1.01 – 1.14), urinary incontinence (PR: 1.03;95% CI: 1.00-1.08), prior history of skin tears (PR: 1.21;95% CI: 1.10-1.34), Tinetti with no dysfunction (PR: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.05-1.48) and Tinetti with high risk of altered gait and balance (PR: 1.21;95% CI: 1.00-1.48), ADL-dependent (PR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.00-1.08), presence of ecchymosis (bruising) (PR: 1.11;95% CI: 1.03-1.18), decreased turgor (PR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.00-1.05), rough texture (PR: 1.04;95% CI:1.00-1.10), dry skin (PR: 1.04;95%CI:1.00-1.08) and edema (PR: 1.04;95% CI: 1.00-1.08) were independently associated with the presence of skin tears. Skin tears in the elderly population need to be better understood in different climatic conditions in order to prevent and treat these wounds.
