M. Gail Woodbury, BScPT, MSc, PhD - Canadian Association of ...

for most healthcare fac i l i ty type s .
The preva l en ce esti m a tes obt a i n ed and a de s i red
n a rrow 95% CI width of 10% can be used to ascert a i n
the sample size requ i rem ents for con du cting a futu re
preva l en ce stu dy in each of the healthcare setti n gs ,
using the formula su gge s ted by Ba u m ga rten . 5 (Th e
accept a n ce of a 95% CI wi der than 10% re sults is a
trade - of f in prec i s i on for a small er sample size
requ i rem ent.) The requ i red sample size esti m a te s
a re : 289 ac ute care su bj ect s , 322 non - ac ute care su bj
ect s , 197 com mu n i ty care su bj ect s , and 265 mixed
h e a l t h c a re su bj ect s . In other word s , in set ti n gs in
wh i ch the preva l en ce is anti c i p a ted to be above 25%,
a pprox i m a tely 300 su bj ects are needed , while fewer
su bj ects are needed if the preva l en ce is anti c i p a ted to
be as low as 15%. These sample size calculati ons len d
su pport to the met h odo l ogical cri teri on su gge s ted by
Lon ey et al 4 that appropri a te sample size for preval
en ce studies is gre a ter than 300 su bj ects to all ow for
the po s s i bi l i ty that the preva l en ce is as high as 25%.
Com p a ring esti m a tes with those from other co u ntries
su ggests that the esti m a te for the nu m ber of
p a ti ents with pre s su re ulcers in ac ute care (25.1%) is
h i gh er than two previ o u s ly reported pre s su re ulcer
preva l en ce esti m a tes from ac ross the US. 1 , 3 Th e
N P UAP pre s su re ulcer preva l en ce esti m a te ra n ged
bet ween 10% and 17.1%. 3 Wh i t ti n g ton et al 1 reported
a 15.1% preva l en ce of pre s su re ulcers from a seri e s
of s tudies con du cted by KCI in ac ute care fac i l i ti e s
ac ross the US. The differen ces bet ween Ca n adian and
US esti m a tes of preva l en ce of pre s su re ulcers in
ac ute care fac i l i ties might be due to differen t
m et h odo l ogies em p l oye d and the time peri od over
wh i ch the data were co ll ected . However, US and
Ca n adian esti m a tes gen era ted by KCI in 1999 using
i den tical met h ods found a pre s su re ulcer preva l en ce
e s ti m a te in Ca n ada of 27% (see Figure 3) that was
con s i dera bly high er than the 15.1% va lue reported in
U S . 1 Th erefore , these esti m a tes may repre s ent tru e
d i f feren ces bet ween the Ca n adian and US healthcare
s ys tem s . Ot h er po s s i ble ex p l a n a ti ons inclu de differen
ces in the sample sizes and pati ent prof i l e s . The US
KCI esti m a te reported by Wh i t ti n g ton was limited to
adult pati ents in med i c a l - su r gical and inten s ive care
u n i t s , while samples su rveyed in Ca n adian healthcare
i n s ti tuti ons in this report inclu ded more units.
The stu dy preva l en ce esti m a te for pati ents in non -