Effects of the whole nursing intervention on the control of the risk factors of diabetic foot

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effects of the whole nursing intervention on the control of the risk factors of diabetic foot. Methods A total of 600 cases of type 2 diabetes patients with the risk factors of diabetic foot were randomly divided into observation group and control group, 300 respectively. For each group, there were three subgroups of low, medium and high risk of diabetic foot with 100 cases in each subgroup. Patients in two groups were given the whole nursing intervention and routine nursing intervention respectively. The foot skin conditions, ankle brachial index (ABI) and sensory threshold determination, weighted integral score of risk factors of diabetic foot and the incidence of diabetic foot before the intervention, 6 months post intervention, 12 months post intervention and 18 months post intervention were compared between two groups. Results Before the intervention, there were no statistically significant differences in the foot skin conditions, determination of ABI and sensory threshold, weighted integral score of risk factors of diabetic foot and the incidence of diabetic foot between two groups (P>0.05) . At 6 months post intervention, 12 months post intervention and 18 months post intervention, significant differences in the foot skin conditions were observed between two groups (P 0.05) . At 12 and 18 months post intervention, there were statistically significant differences in the ABI and sensory threshold value between two groups (P<0.05) . At 18 months post intervention, comparison of weighted integral scores of risk factors of diabetic foot between two groups showed that, in the observation group, the ratio of subgroup with low-risk increased, while the ratios of subgroups with medium and high-risk decreased; in the control group, the ratio of subgroup with low-risk decreased, while the ratios of subgroups with medium and high-risk increased. The differences were statistically significant (P<0.01) . There were 10 cases of diabetic foot in the observation group and 38 cases in the control group. The number of diabetic foots in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group, with a statistically significant difference (P<0.01) . Conclusions The effect of the whole nursing intervention on the control of the risk factors of diabetic foot is remarkable. Key words: Diabetic foot; Risk factor; Nursing intervention