NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND PRESSURE INJURIES ASSOCIATION IN INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY PEOPLE

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Morbidities resulting from the ageing process, associated with chronic diseases and other factors, can make people susceptible to pressure injuries. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between the occurrence of pressure injuries and nutritional status in the elderly. METHODOLOGY: This is an observational, retrospective cohort study using secondary data from 178 older adults living in 6 Long Term Care in two municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Sociodemographic, clinical, nutritional and special care data were collected from the medical records. The quantitative variables were described by mean, standard deviation and range of variation. Fisher's exact test was used to assess the association between the variables. RESULTS: The presence of pressure injuries was not associated with nutritional status, but it was possible to observe that the elderly with pressure injuries performed less motor physiotherapy (p=0.015), had more heart diseases (p=0.048) and used more tube feeding (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study found no association between the occurrence of pressure injuries and the nutritional status of older adults living in Long Term Care.