The effect of local olive oil on prevention of pressure ulcers in patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Yasuj: A double-blind randomized clinical trial

Aims and Prevention of bedsore is considered as a priority in acute and long-term care in intensive care units (ICU).This study aimed to determine the effect of olive oil on prevention of pressure ulcers in patients hospitalized in the ICU of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Yasuj.
In this double-blind randomized clinical trial 70 patients18-74 years old were investigated from 2013 to 2015. Patients were selected by purposive sampling method and were divided into two groups. During two weeks, patients of the control group received their usual skin care including changing positions every two hours and flow mattress while the patients of the intervention group received usual care in addition to daily use of 15 ml olive oil on special areas of body without massage. Data about pressure ulcers was collected using a questionnaire and was analyzed by chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test and t-test in SPSS software version 20.
Findings: In the intervention group 11.4 % had a grade 1 pressure ulcer, and 8.2 % had second grade decubitus ulcers while 85.7 % had no pressure ulcer. In the control group, 8.5 % had a grade 1 pressure ulcer, and 25.7% had second grade decubitus ulcers while 65.7 % had no pressure ulcer. The results of this study showed that the incidence of pressure ulcers in the intervention group was lower than the control group (p˂0.03).
According to our data, it can be concluded that the use of local olive oil is effective in prevention of pressure ulcers.