[The prevalence of care problems among nursing home residents in the Netherlands: an overview from 2017 to 2024].

BACKGROUND

Insight into the quality of care is essential for providing high-quality care and guiding quality improvements in nursing homes. Data from the Dutch National Prevalence Measurement of Care Problems (Dutch: Landelijke Prevalentiemeting Zorgproblemen, LPZ) provide annual, standardized information on the prevalence of common care problems in long-term care. This article describes trends in six care problems in Dutch nursing homes from 2017 to 2024: pressure ulcers, incontinence, falls, malnutrition, restraint use, and pain.

METHODS

LPZ data from 60,926 residents (2017-2024, excluding 2020) were descriptively analyzed. Prevalence rates were reported per problem per year.

RESULTS

Between 2017-2024, the prevalence of pain increased from 34.2% to 42.7%, while restraint use decreased (from 30.3% to 17.1%). For other care problems, trends were less pronounced: malnutrition remained stable (16.3% to 16.2%), incontinence decreased (urinary: 23.3% to 20.5%; fecal: 17.4% to 16.9%; double: 12.7% to 9.8%), while falls (12.6% to 13.1%) and pressure ulcers (2.9% to 4.5%) slightly increased.

CONCLUSION

LPZ prevalence data for 2017-2024 reveal diverse trends in six common care problems, including reduced restraint use and increased pain. These results show that systematic monitoring of care problems is important to detect changes over time and to support targeted quality improvement.