Pressure ulcer knowledge, beliefs and practices in a group of South Africans with spinal cord injury.

Abstract

A quantitative, descriptive study using a cross-sectional survey.To describe the pressure ulcer knowledge, beliefs and practices amongst persons with SCI, who received rehabilitation at a Cape Town rehabilitation centre.A rehabilitation centre for clients with physical disabilities in Cape Town, South Africa.A quantitative, descriptive study, that employed consecutive sampling, was done. Participants included inpatients ( = 30), outpatients ( = 33) and peer supporters ( = 8). Data were collected during April and March 2015 with a questionnaire developed through collating existing questionnaires and adapting it for the study context. This rendered a knowledge score and data on beliefs and practices. The Fisher's exact test was used for comparative analysis ( < 0.05).The mean combined knowledge score was 42.7%. The majority of participants (88.7%) believed pressure ulcers to be serious and 45% thought they were likely to develop a PU. They believed daily skin checks (80.3%), weight shifting (86%) and limiting sitting time (80.3%) could prevent PU development. Study participants indicated that they did not regularly follow guideline recommended practices like regular pressure relief (51%) (36 participants) or daily skin inspection (38%) (27 participants) and 37% (26 participants) reported being current smokers.Participants showed a lack of knowledge, which might have affected their pressure ulcer prevention practices negatively. The study findings can be used to assist with the development of a contextually relevant training programme on pressure care.