Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 16;10(4):797.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10040797.

Multicentre Study of Chronic Wounds Point Prevalence in Primary Health Care in the Southern Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

Miguel Ángel Díaz-Herrera  1   2   3 , José Ramón Martínez-Riera  4 , José Verdú-Soriano  4 , Raúl Miguel Capillas-Pérez  1 , Carme Pont-García  1 , Silvia Tenllado-Pérez  1 , Oriol Cunillera-Puértolas  3   5 , Miriam Berenguer-Pérez  4 , Vicente Gea-Caballero  6
Affiliations

Multicentre Study of Chronic Wounds Point Prevalence in Primary Health Care in the Southern Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

Miguel Ángel Díaz-Herrera et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: Chronic wounds give rise to major costs and resource consumption in health care systems, due to their protracted healing time. Incidence and prevalence data are scarce or nonexistent in community settings.

Objective: The aim of the present epidemiological study was to analyse and determine the prevalence of chronic wounds in the community in the south of the province of Barcelona (Spain).

Design: A cross-sectional, multicentre secondary data analysis study was conducted in the community (excluding nursing homes) in Barcelona between 16 April and 13 June 2013. It included 52 primary care centres that serve a total population of 1,217,564 inhabitants.

Results: The observed prevalence was 0.11%. Venous ulcers presented the highest prevalence, at 0.04%, followed by pressure injuries, at 0.03%. The >74 age group presented the highest frequency of chronic wounds, accounting for 69.4% of cases.

Conclusion: The results obtained are consistent with those reported in previous similar studies conducted in Spain and elsewhere. As with most studies that adjusted their variables for age and sex, we found that the prevalence of ulcers increased with age and was higher in women, except in the case of diabetic foot ulcers and ischaemic ulcers, which were more frequent in men.

Keywords: cross-sectional studies; diabetic foot; foot ulcer; leg ulcer; pressure ulcer; prevalence; primary health care; varicose ulcer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Farrar D. Advanced Wound Repair Therapies. Elsevier; Cambridge, MA, USA: 2011. Introduction; pp. xix–xxi.
    1. Demarré L., Van Lancker A., Van Hecke A., Verhaeghe S., Grypdonck M., Lemey J., Annemans L., Beeckman D. The cost of prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers: A systematic review. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 2015;52:1754–1774. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2015.06.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Palfreyman S.J., Stone P.W. A systematic review of economic evaluations assessing interventions aimed at preventing or treating pressure ulcers. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 2015;52:769–788. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2014.06.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Green J., Jester R., McKinley R., Pooler A. The impact of chronic venous leg ulcers: A systematic review. J. Wound Care. 2014;23:601–612. doi: 10.12968/jowc.2014.23.12.601. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad . Estrategia de Seguridad del Paciente del Sistema Nacional de Salud 2015–2020. Madrid, Spain: 2015. pp. 1–128.

LinkOut - more resources