A qualitative analysis of pressure injury development among medically underserved adults with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Purpose: Medically underserved adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) remain at high risk of incurring medically serious pressure injuries even after receiving education in prevention techniques. The purpose of this research is to identify circumstances leading to medically serious pressure injury development in medically underserved adults with SCI during a lifestyle-based pressure injury prevention program, and provide recommendations for future rehabilitation approaches and intervention design.

Methods: This study entailed a qualitative secondary case analysis of treatment notes from a randomized controlled trial. Participants were 25 community-dwelling, medically underserved adults with SCI who developed medically serious pressure injuries during the course of the intervention of the RCT.

Results and conclusions: Among the 25 participants, 40 unique medically serious pressure injuries were detected. The six themes related to medically serious pressure injury development were: (1) lack of rudimentary knowledge pertaining to wound care; (2) equipment and supply issues; (3) comorbidities; (4) non-adherence to prescribed bed rest; (5) inactivity; and (6) circumstances beyond the intervention’s reach. Together, these factors may have undermined the effectiveness of the intervention program. Modifications, such as assessing health literacy levels of patients prior to providing care, providing tailored wound care education, and focusing on equipment needs, have potential for altering future rehabilitation programs and improving health outcomes.

Implications for rehabilitation

• To provide patients with spinal cord injury with the necessary information to prevent medically serious pressure injury development, health care providers need to understand their patient’s unique personal contexts, including socio-economic status, language skills, and mental/cognitive functioning.

• When providing wound care information to patients with spinal cord injury who have developed a medically serious pressure injury, practitioners should take into account the level of health literacy of their patient in order to provide education that is appropriate and understandable.

• Practitioners should be aware of how to help their patient advocate for outside services and care that address their equipment needs, such as finding funding or grants to pay for expensive medical equipment.

Keywords:

• Spinal cord injuries
• pressure injury
• lifestyle
• intervention
• cultural diversity

Acknowledgements

We thank the LR-PUPS research team and all of the study participants. Additionally, we are grateful to Cheryl L.P. Vigen and Daniella C. Floríndez for their help in revising this paper.

Ethical approval

All participants signed informed consent forms to participate. The University of Southern California and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center Institutional Review Boards approved this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

ORCID detail

Lucía I. Floríndez, ORCID: 0000-0002-0206-1910.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant R01HD056267 from the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health to the University of Southern California (PI: F Clark). The funding body did not play a role in study design, analysis, or interpretation of data.