الفهرس 
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Abstract
Summary
Pruritus is the most common dermatologic problem among elderly.
chronic pruritus can be idiopathic or may be caused by various specific
causes not only from xerosis and dermatologic diseases but also from
several systemic disorders (Chung et al, 2221).
The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of implementing
nursing guidelines on chronic pruritus among elderly patients with chronic
pruritus over the last six months who attended to the outpatient clinic of the
department of Dermatology, Venereology and Andrology at Sohag
University Hospital and outpatient clinic of dermatology at Sohag General
Hospital, Sohag, Egypt.
Two tools were used for collecting data for this study:
Tool I: Structured Interview questionnaire that was created by
researcher after extensive literature review, written in simple Arabic
language and consisted of three parts:-
Part 1: Demographic characteristics of elderly with chronic pruritus such
as gender, age, place of residence, marital status, level of education and
job before retirement.
Part 2: Clinical data includes:-
Past history of medical diseases such as (hypertension, diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, liver disease, renal disease, dermatological
diseases or allergy from any types of foods or medication).
Present history of dermatological problems such as cracks and
infection of skin, inflammation of skin, dryness of skin and pruritus.
Assess pruritus ( duration, severity and factors that decrease or
increase patient’s pruritus ) .
Part 3: Assessment of knowledge of the elderly regarding pruritus It
included 13 questions related to knowledge on skin and its layers,
function of skin, age-related changes on skin and definition, causes, signs
and symptoms of chronic pruritus.
Tool II: The 5-D itch scale.
The 5-D itch scale is a reliable, multidimensional measure of
itching that has been validated in patients with chronic pruritus to detect
changes over time. It consisted of five dimensions: degree, duration,
direction, disability and distribution.
Summary
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The main result of the present study were:
More than half of them (57.9: & 57.1:) were females. (63.2: &
71.4:) of control and experimental groups respectively, were illiterate and
majority of both groups were live in rural areas.
Regarding to past history about dermatological diseases among
studied elderly patients, it was found that, 39.5:&54.8: of studied elderly
patients had history of food allergy.
The study presented that control group knowledge level was
unsatisfactory before and after nursing guidelines. While in experimental
group knowledge level was improved after nursing guidelines.
There was highly significant difference of 5D itching scale after
nursing guidelines after two and third months in experimental group.
So the following recommendations are suggested:
Continuous educational program for patients with chronic
pruritus should be applied periodically to improve knowledge and
decrease severity of pruritus for those patients.
Application of nursing guidelines should be initiated in wide health
services to reduce pruritus among elderly patients.
Nurses are encouraged to apply different types of nursing
practices in the field of dermatology to implement evidence-based
information related to nursing.
Home visits and telephone follow up are very essential to
manage chronic pruritus among elderly patients