Open AccessUsing the Braden subscales to assess risk of pressure injuries in adult patients: A retrospective case‐control study
Author(s) -
Lim Ellene,
Mordiffi Zubaidah,
Chew Han S. J.,
Lopez Violeta
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international wound journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1742-481X
pISSN - 1742-4801
DOI - 10.1111/iwj.13078
Subject(s) - medicine , medical record , retrospective cohort study , psychological intervention , physical therapy , psychiatry
The aim of this study was to compare the pressure injury risk predictability between the individual Braden subscales and the total Braden scale in adult inpatients in Singapore. A retrospective 1:1 case‐control design was used from a sample of 199 patient medical records. Clinical data were collected from a local university hospital's medical records database. The results showed that, among the six subscales, the activity subscale was the most sensitive and specific in predicting pressure injury (PI). However, the overall results showed that the Braden scale remained the most predictive of PI development in comparison with the individual subscales. The study also found that, among the Singaporean patients, the Braden cut‐off score for PI risk was 17 compared with the current cut‐off score of 18. Therefore, it may be relevant for local tertiary hospitals to review their respective Braden cut‐off scores as the study results indicate an over‐prediction of PI risk, which leads to unnecessary utilisation of resources. The hospital may also consider developing a PI prevention bundle comprising commonly used preventive interventions when at least one Braden subscale reflects a suboptimal score.