How health literacy relates to venous leg ulcer healing: A scoping review

Associations between self-care advice and healing time in patients with venous leg ulcer- a Swedish registry-based study

BACKGROUND

Venous leg ulcers take time to heal. It is advocated that physical activity plays a role in healing, and so does the patient's nutritional status. Additionally, malnutrition influences the inflammatory processes, which extends the healing time. Therefore, the staff's advising role is important for patient outcomes. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the associations between given self-care advice and healing time in patients with venous leg ulcers while controlling for demographic and ulcer-related factors.

METHODS

The sample consisted of patients registered in the Registry of Ulcer Treatment (RUT) which includes patient and ulcer-related and healing variables. The data was analyzed with descriptive statistics. Logistic regression models were performed to investigate the influence of self-care advice on healing time.

RESULTS

No associations between shorter healing time (less than 70 days) and the staff´s self-care advice on physical activity was identified, whilst pain (OR 1.90, CI 1.32-2.42, p < 0.001) and giving of nutrition advice (OR 1.55, CI 1.12-2.15, p = 0.009) showed an association with longer healing time.

CONCLUSIONS

Neither self-care advice on nutrition and/or physical activity indicated to have a positive association with shorter healing time. However, information and counseling might not be enough. We emphasize the importance of continuously and systematically following up given advice throughout ulcer management, not only when having complicated ulcers.

Association between venous leg ulcers and chronic heart failure: A Mendelian randomization study

An association between venous leg ulcers (VLU) and chronic heart failure (CHF) has been suggested by observational research. This study used Mendelian randomization (MR) methods to look into any possible bidirectional causal links between VLU and CHF. The 'TwoSampleMR' R package was employed for MR analyses. The association of VLU and CHF was assessed via methods of inverse variance weighted (IVW), weighted mode, MR Egger and weighted median. Results of IVW suggested no association between VLU and CHF (β 0.008356; SE 0.01889; p = 0.6582). The weighted median estimator (β -0.005777; SE 0.02059, p = 0.7791), MR-Egger (β -0.08955; SE 0.04557; p = 0.07296) and weighted mode (β -0.01202; SE 0.02467; p = 0.6341) showed consistent results. Conversely, evidence indicating that the presence of CHF increased the risk of VLU was lacking. In conclusion, there is no bidirectional causal relationship between VLU and CHF. Further studies are required to validate the findings of this study.

Influence of pain on the quality of life in patients with venous ulcers: Cross-sectional association and correlation study in a brazilian primary health care lesions treatment center

We aimed to verify the association and correlation between pain and QoL in people with VU treated in a Brazilian Primary Health Care (PHC) lesions treatment center. This is an observational, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out in a service specialized in the treatment of chronic injuries, linked to 29 PHC units. Sociodemographic and health characterization instruments were used. The Short Form Health Survey-36 (SF-36) and Visual Analogue Pain Scale (VAPS) also were used. The Kruskal-Wallis test verified the association between the scalar variables of QoL and pain intensity. With Spearman's correlation test, we verified the level of correlation between the scales applied. A total of 103 patients participated in the study. Higher QoL scores associated with moderate pain were found, especially in the Physical role functioning, Physical functioning, and Vitality domains. Correlation analysis showed its greatest (moderate) strength in the interaction between the highest scores in the Physical role functioning and Emotional role functioning domains with the lowest pain levels.