Investigating the Reliability and Validity of the Waterlow Risk Assessment Scale: A Literature Review

Breda Walsh and Laura Dempsey
Additional contact information
Breda Walsh: The Mater Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Laura Dempsey: National University of Ireland, Galway, laura.dempsey@nuigalway.ie

Clinical Nursing Research, 2011, vol. 20, issue 2, 197-208

Abstract: The aim of this review was to examine health literature on the reliability and validity of the Waterlow pressure sore assessment scale. A systematic review of published studies relating to the topic was conducted and literature was examined for its relevancy to the topic under investigation. Findings suggest that despite the availability of over 40 assessment tools, the Waterlow assessment scale is the most frequently used by health care staff. Research suggests that the Waterlow Scale is an unreliable method of assessing individuals at risk of pressure sore development with all studies indicating a poor interrater reliability status. Its validity has also been criticized because of its high-sensitivity but low-specificity levels.

Keywords: pressure ulcer; Waterlow Score; reliability; validity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1054773810389809 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:clnure:v:20:y:2011:i:2:p:197-208

DOI: 10.1177/1054773810389809

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Clinical Nursing Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().