Development of a new risk assessment scale for assessment of the pressure sore

This study was designed to develop a new Pressure Sore Risk Assessment Scale to assess pressure sore risk in bedridden patients The population of the study included 254 patients hospitalized in the Orthopedics and Traumatology clinic and intensive care units of Neurology, Internal Medicine and Neurosurgery clinics in Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital between the dates September 1, 2015 and November 1, 2016. Of the patients in the study population, 207 who were over the age of 18 years, had no pressure sore, were bedridden and had a hospital stay of at least six days comprised the study sample.To collect the data, the "Individual Information Form" and "Pressure Sore Risk Assessment Scale" developed by the researchers based on the relevant literature were used. The participants were monitored until the end of their hospitalization or until they developed pressure sore. Their monitoring began 48 hours after their admittance to the hospital. For the validity of the scale, content validity, predictive validity and construct validity were performed. For the reliability, interobserver agreement and internal consistency analyses were performed. After the content validity and internal consistency analysis of the "Pressure Sore Risk Assessment Scale", two items were removed from the scale. The seven-item scale was determined to have a one-factor structure. After the ROC analysis, the participants whose score for the "Pressure Sore Risk Assessment Scale" was ≥6 were considered to be at high risk for pressure sores. The sensitivity of the scale was 0.97, the specificity was 0.83, the positive predictive validity was 0.69, and the negative predictive validity was 0.99. The "Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient" of the scale was 0.81. In conclusion, the "Pressure Sore Risk Assessment Scale" newly introduced to the literature was considered to be a valid and reliable tool that could be used to assess pressure sore risks.