Incidence and Predictors of Pressure Ulcer in Patients with Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury during Acute Care Rehabilitation

Objective: The primary objective was to study the incidence of pressure ulcers (PUs) and identify medical and demographic predictors associated with PUs in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) during acute care rehabilitation. Methods: SIC patients ( n = 200) were recruited within 24–72 h of admission to the SMS hospital. The demographic, clinical and medical data were recorded at admission and at 6 weeks. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was conducted to identify the significant predictors. Results: The incidence of PUs among patients with SCI was 31% (62/200) during acute care and 15% (30/200) during inpatient rehabilitation. Univariate logistic regression analyses identified a significant association between PU incidence and urinary tract infections (UTI), diabetes, anaemia, hypoproteinaemia, hypoalbuminaemia and SCI severity ( P < 0.05). However, multivariate logistic regression revealed that except for diabetes, all these factors were significant predictors of PU incidence when considered together ( P < 0.05). Conclusion: The development of PUs is influenced by a range of risk factors, including high injury severity, UTI, anaemia, hypoproteinaemia and hypoalbuminaemia, which can be predicted by the regression equation with 68% of explained variance.