Application of the sheepskin mattress in clinical care for pressure relieving: a quantitative experimental evaluation

This study aimed at quantitatively evaluating the effectiveness of sheepskin mattress (SSM) in pressure relieving, and then variables of peak pressure (mmHg) (PP), average pressure (AP) and contact area (cm2) (CA) at the total, back, sacrum and heel regions of 18 students supinely lying in a control mattress (CM), standard hospital mattress (SHM), SHM + SSM, SSM + CM and AM + CM were measured and contrasted. Paired-T test with a significant level of .05 shows that: the intervention of SSM significantly increased the total CA of SHM by 395.6 cm2 and lowered its PP and AP by 8.8 and 2.0 mmHg respectively; further, the pressure distribution of SSM + CM was superior to that of AM + CM. The reliability of this study, with exception of the heel area, was proven to be good. Overall, the sheepskin mattress is an effective product in pressure reliving.