<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Pressure ulcers are a major problem for national healthcare systems since they frequently occur in hospitalized patients, negatively affecting patients' quality of life and extending duration of hospitalization.</p>
<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To systematically review the available evidence regarding the incidence, prevalence, attributable length of stay and cost of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers in pediatric populations.</p>
<p><strong>DESIGN: </strong>A systematic review and meta-analysis.</p>
<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>A systematic search (March 15, 2020) was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest databases. Cross-sectional and cohort studies of neonates and children aged <21 years old were eligible for inclusion when full text was available in English and data for at least one of the following criteria was provided: incidence, prevalence, attributable length of stay or healthcare cost due to hospital-acquired pressure ulcers. Study quality was evaluated using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools. Random effects models were used to synthesize data. Heterogeneity and publication bias were evaluated.</p>
<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>From the 1055 studies appeared in literature search, 21 studies were included in the systematic review and 19 were included in the meta-analysis. The overall prevalence ranged from 0.47% to 31.2% and cumulative incidence ranged from 3.7% to 27%. The pooled prevalence was estimated at 7.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 4.3%-10.4%) and the pooled cumulative incidence at 14.9% (95% CI: 7.7%-23.9%). The pooled prevalence among neonates was 27.0% (95% CI: 22.1%-33.1%) among children aged less than 1 year old was 19.2% (95% CI: 9.4%-31.3%) and among children older than 1 year was 12.3% (95% CI: 2.3%-27.9%). The cumulative incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers in neonates was 9.8% (95% CI: 2.9%-19.8%) and in children aged <1 year old was 11.3% (95% CI: 4.4%-20.7%), while no data was available to estimate this figure for children older than 1 year. The attributable length of stay ranged from 0.9 to 14.1 days and the attributable cost ranged from $894.69 to $98,730.24 (United States dollars; value of a dollar in 2020) per patient with hospital-acquired pressure ulcers.</p>
<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS: </strong>The results of this meta-analysis indicate that hospital-acquired pressure ulcers occur frequently in pediatric populations with a great variation across different age groups. Moreover, although limited data are available, it seems that hospital-acquired pressure ulcers have significant economic implications for the healthcare systems since they prolong patients' hospitalization stay; these findings further highlight the need for implementation of patient-based prevention strategies.</p>
<p><strong>SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: </strong>Not registered Tweetable abstract Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers occur frequently in pediatric populations, prolonging their hospitalization and increasing the healthcare cost.</p>