Healing Time of Skin Ulcers in Homecare Residents in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy

The growing phenomenon of skin ulcers represents an important health problem; therefore, we conducted a pilot study to evaluate the ulcer healing time among adult subjects followed by the Home Nursing Service of the AUSL-IRCCS of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy, and diagnosed with at least one skin ul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Life (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-11, Vol.12 (12), p.1989
Main Authors: Iamandii, Inga, Kouassi, Abram Beatrice, Simonazzi, Davide, Marchesi, Cristina, Vinceti, Marco, Filippini, Tommaso
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bedsores
Care and treatment
Caregivers
Chronic illnesses
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Foot diseases
Healing
healing time
Health care policy
homecare setting
Leg ulcers
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Nurses
Nursing
nursing care
Nursing home patients
Patient outcomes
Pressure ulcers
primary care
Quality of life
Skin
skin ulcer
Survival analysis
Ulcers
Wound healing
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Summary:The growing phenomenon of skin ulcers represents an important health problem; therefore, we conducted a pilot study to evaluate the ulcer healing time among adult subjects followed by the Home Nursing Service of the AUSL-IRCCS of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy, and diagnosed with at least one skin ulcer during the period of January-August 2020. We recruited 138 subjects (45.5% men) with a mean age of 86.1 years. The subjects presented with 232 ulcers, of which 76.7% were pressure ulcers (60.1% were stage II), 18.1% were vascular ulcers, and 4.7% were diabetic foot ulcers. Ulcer management required only one weekly access for the majority of subjects, with a recovery frequency of 53.6% at the end of the observation period. The median ulcer healing time was 3.6 months and was shorter in women (2.6 months) than men (5.1 months), with an increasing trend according to the number of ulcers and the severity of pressure ulcers for vascular and diabetic foot ulcers. In conclusion, this is the first study carried out in an Italian population describing the distribution and characteristics of homecare residents with skin ulcers and highlighting the factors influencing the healing time and as consequence the duration of nursing care.
ISSN:2075-1729
2075-1729
DOI:10.3390/life12121989