Association of overweight and obesity with the prevalence and incidence of pressure ulcers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Summary Background & aim Pressure ulcers challenge the health status, complicate medical conditions, and affect quality of life. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the role of obesity and body weight status, as potentially modifiable risk factors, in the incidence and prevalence of pressure ulcers. Methods A systematic search of observational studies was performed to assess documents published between January 1990 and December 2019 in PubMed and Scopus. Finally, 17 articles with total sample size of 2228724 in the prevalence and 218178 in the incidence study were included in the meta-analysis. Results The pooled data analysis showed no significant effect of obesity on odds of pressure ulcers’ prevalence (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.65 to 1.27, P = 0.579, I2 = 84.8%) or incidence (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.66, P = 0.905, I2 = 89.8%) compared with non-obese individuals. Overweight was associated with significantly lower odds of prevalence of pressure ulcers compared to non-overweight individuals (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.88, P = 0.014, I2 = 90.2%). The subgroup analyses showed significantly higher odds of prevalence (OR 2.38, 95% CI 1.72 to 3.29, P  Conclusion This systematic review and meta-analysis showed no significant effect of obesity or morbid obesity on the odds of pressure ulcers. Additionally, overweight was associated with lower odds of pressure ulcers while underweight significantly increased the odds of pressure injuries.