Foot-Care Activities among Type II Diabetic Patients at Merjan Teaching Hospital, Al-Hilla City

Abstract

Background: Foot care is one of the most important ways for patients with diabetes type II toavoid complications by proper and functioning foot care. Aim of Study: to assess foot care knowledge among Type II DM patients as well as to find the mean difference of foot care assessment score by patients’ socio-demographic characteristics and medical history in a cross-sectional study at Merjan Teaching Hospital in Al-Hilla City. Materials and Methods: Ahospital-based cross sectional study design was carried out on (200) patients with Type II DM seen between January 2014 and June 2014in Merjan Teaching Hospital.Categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages. Continuous variables were presented as mean with their 95% confidence interval (CI) and standard deviation. Independent sample t-test was used to compare means between two groups. One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare among more than two groups. A pvalue of ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: The results showed that, Out of 200 patients with Type II DM, the overall mean score of foot care assessment was (51.16± 8.32). Mean age of DM patients was (51.82± 11.57) years old. There was no significant mean difference between the age of male (53.07± 12.9) years old and mean age of female (51.33± 11.24) t=0.961, df= 198, p= 0.338. (64.0%) of patients belonged to urban area, meanwhile, (80.0%) of patients were married. (40.0%) of patients completed their primary schools study. (56.0%) were not employed and (46.0%) of patients had enough family income. (85.5%) of patients had family members offered care for them. (52.0%) of patients were severed from the diseases for less than five years, meanwhile, (68.5%) of DM patients did not admitted to emergency room because of elevated blood sugar. (40.0%) of DM patients had pain in their feet and (82.0%) were not smokers.Higher rate was for DM patients who wash their feet. On other hand, higher rate was for DM patients wear sandal.There were significant mean difference of foot care assessment score by marital status, educational level, duration of disease, previous admission to emergency room and foot problem. Conclusion: There was an overall good foot care among DM type II patients in Merjan Teaching Hospital. There was no difference between men and women concerning all foot care activities, meanwhile, single were better than married DM patients about their foot care.