Knowledge and Awareness of Diabetic Foot Complications in Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Background: diabetic foot problems are common throughout the world, resulting in major economic consequences for the patients, their families, and society. Foot ulcers are more likely to be of neuropathic origin, and therefore eminently preventable, in developing countries, which will experience the greatest rise in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Aim of the Work: to assess the level of awareness of Diabetic foot disease amongst patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus aim. To measure the knowledge of diabetic about sign and symptoms of diabetic foot. To measure the knowledge of risk factors of diabetic foot in diabetic patients. Patients and Methods: this is a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study enrolling a total of 100 randomly selected diabetic foot Saudi adults ensuring diversity in age range and educational stages. Descriptive analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 23. Awareness levels for DF were calculated as absolute frequencies and were reported as overall percentages. Results: a number of 99 participants with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus participated in the study, 91% of the participants were either overweight or obese, 92% of participants had concomitant hypertension, (57.5%), dyslipidemia and (26.7%) eye problems. Also 76% of the specimen reported altered sensation in their lower limbs, and 90% reported having no previous diabetic foot disease education. Only 22.2% of participants reported having examined their feet, but only when they experienced a problem. A number of participants achieved mediocre scores for knowledge (mean 4.45, standard deviation (s.d.) 2.201, confidence interval (CI) 4.2–4.7) and practice (mean 11.09, s.d. 2.233, CI 10.8–11.5) on diabetic foot care (DFC). Those who had a higher level of education and who were less than 65 years old had a significantly better score for previous foot care education (p <0.05). Conclusion: The study demonstrated that awareness of DFD was suboptimal, based on current DFC guidelines. To minimize the burden of DFD, improved screening and prevention programs as well as patient education should be provided to T2DM patients, whilst maintaining an aggressive approach to risk factor modifications, footwear and identifying the at-risk foot.