Foot Care Knowledge and Practice among Diabetic Patients Attending General Outpatient Clinic in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Diabetes Mellitus results in several serious complications and among them foot problem is one of the commonly ignored complications. This study is an attempt to find out the level of patient’s awareness and practice in Nepalese context. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the knowledge and practice of foot care among patients with diabetes in Nepal. Methods: This is a six-month long cross-sectional study done in the General Practice Clinic of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Diabetic patients were given structure questionnaires on knowledge, foot care practices, and demographic information. Results: Illiteracy was found be significantly associated with poor knowledge and practice of foot care. Those who have no education are more likely to have poor knowledge and foot care practice. The odds of having poor knowledge is 6.414 (3.075, 13.379) in those who have no education/primary education compared to those who have education and the odds of poor foot care practice is 4.5180 (2.077, 8.411) in those who have no education/primary education compared to those who have education with significance of <0.001. Conclusion: This study has highlighted the need of appropriate education intervention for the patients with diabetes who have no education background to prevent from foot complications. Health education materials such as graphics, photos are needed to make them comprehensible for the illiterate patients.