Associations of dry skin, skin care habits, well-being, sleep quality and itch in nursing home residents: Results of a multicentre, observational, cross-sectional study.
Elisabeth Hahnel, Ulrike Blume-Peytavi, Jan Kottner
PMID 31660178WHAT IT FOUND
Skin dryness and care habits showed no link to itch, sleep, or well-being in 51 nursing home residents.
Most residents had mild or no itch, and dry skin did not appear to drive distressing symptoms in this group.
Key findings
01No associations were found between dry skin, skin care habits, and itch, sleep quality, or well-being.
02Itch was a minor problem, with nearly half of residents reporting no itch and none reporting severe or unbearable itch.
03Residents who were less care dependent had drier skin on their legs than those with more limited self-care abilities.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (N=51) because 77.1% of the eligible residents were cognitively impaired and excluded from self-reporting. The study was exploratory with no formal hypothesis testing, meaning the lack of associations may be due to low statistical power. Residents who could self-report were less care-dependent and had lower pressure ulcer risk than the total sample, which may limit generalizability to frailer patients. The instruments used may not have captured the most important subjective items for this specific population.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin and registered at clinicaltrials.gov.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that skin care is unnecessary or ineffective. The null findings here are limited to a small subgroup of cognitively intact, less care-dependent residents and do not prove that dry skin never causes distress in the broader nursing home population.