Dr. Berlowitz et al., EVALUATING PRESSURE ULCER OCCURRENCE IN LONG-TERM-CARE - PITFALLS IN INTERPRETING ADMINISTRATIVE, Journal of clinical epidemiology, 49(3), 1996, pp. 289-292
Citations number
27
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Medicine, General & Internal
Administrative databases for long-term care frequently collect informa
tion on fixed dates of the calendar year, rather than for entire episo
des of care. Patients discarged or dying prior to an evaluation date a
re lost to follow up. We used one such database, the VA Patient Assess
ment File, to examine pressure ulcer occurrence in long-term care. Cli
nical studies have established that most pressure ulcers develop durin
g the first several weeks following admission. In these data, however,
pressure ulcer development was less common in patients assessed withi
n 2 months following admission, as compared to those examined at 3 to
6 months. This finding appears to be related to the selective discharg
e of patients, which makes these patient populations noncomparable. Th
ese results highlight that care must be exercised when interpreting re
sults obtained from such administrative data.