A Survey on the Itching Symptoms and Skin Care of Patients Housed at Residential Nursing Homes

Abstract

It is known that the elderly suffer from pruritus, which can cause itching sensations. Prolonged itching can reduce quality of life, so proper skin care is required in nursing care settings. Therefore, to improve caregivers, working in residential nursing homes (hereinafter referred to as caregivers), understanding of topical medication application, we used a questionnaire to investigate their actual skin care practices. We also determined whether pharmacists’ instructions could aid in caregivers’ understanding of topical medication application and thereby improve patients’ itching sensations. Results from self-reports based on the questionnaire show that caregivers’ understanding of medication application improved in many areas after training. In addition, we surveyed the itching of residents, which showed that about half of the patients had itching and their itch score decreased significantly (p<0.001) after pharmacist’s instruction. This study confirms that pharmacists’ instruction to caregivers can improve their understanding of topical medications, which in turn can lead to appropriate skin care and reduce patients’ pruritus.