FACTORS RELATED TO DEPRESSION AMONG ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH PRESSURE ULCER IN WENZHOU, CHINA

Abstract

The occurrence of pressure ulcer can bring a great burden to patients, families, hospitals, and society. Providing care for patients with pressure ulcer requires extra physical and mental effort, which leads to anxiety, tension, and pain in patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors related to depression among elderly patients with pressure ulcers in Wenzhou, China. A simple random sampling method was used to recruit the sample of 128 elderly patients with pressure ulcers in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (WMU) in Wenzhou, China. Research instruments included questionnaires to gather data for demographic information, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Appraisal of Self-care Agency Scale-Revised (ASAS-R), the Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS) and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Data were collected during the period of July to December 2023. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients were used to analyze the data.

The results revealed that the sample had mild depression 18.75% and severe depression 5.47%. For correlation analysis, depression after pressure ulcer was significantly correlated with social support (r = -.439, p < .001) and self-care ability (r = -.465, p < .001). While mental health literacy was not significantly correlated with depression after pressure ulcer.

The findings suggest that nurses and other health care providers should apply these study results to develop proper interventions or program aimed at reducing the incidence of depression in patients with pressure ulcers by focusing on social support and self-care ability.

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