Table 1.

Inclusion criteria

Questions	Criteria	Specification	Notes
1 and 2	Population	People at risk of developing pressure ulcers but with no signs of established pressure damage including category (1) pressure ulcers
1 and 2	Intervention	Use of any type of wound dressing as part of pressure area care	Pressure area care considered to include load redistribution, risk assessment, skin care and nutritional support
1 and 2	Comparator	Pressure area care without the use of prophylactic dressings to augment prevention or pressure area care with an alternative prophylactic dressing used to augment prevention
1	Outcome	Number and severity of new pressure ulcers
1 and 2	Setting	Primary and secondary care	No restriction on geographical location
1 and 2	Study design and publication status	Systematic reviews, randomised, non‐randomised, cohort, case series and case studies, observational and qualitative studies. Excluded studies – those not using a prophylactic dressing to augment pressure ulcer prevention (e.g. underpads and padding), testimonials, non‐systematic reviews, editorials and in vitro studies	No restrictions on study type, review limited to published studies and in print manuscripts. Poster presentations excluded
1 and 2	Length of follow‐up	Until people receiving pressure ulcer prevention left the study or developed pressure ulcers
1 and 2	Language	English language only
1 and 2	Publication date	No limitation