SOCIOLOGICAL EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT OF DIABETIC FOOT PATIENTS

Abstract

Objectives: In this study, the problems, attitudes and behaviors of diabetic foot patients were examined and evaluated in terms of sociology and management science. Diabetic foot disease is a serious chronic disease with a difficult life-supply process for sick individuals and a high cost for the family and society. The financial burden of these costs on the national health system and the family of the individual is quite high. It has been observed that there is no subjective study in the examination of national and international resources on the management of these costs. One of the most frightening complications in diabetic foot disease is amputation. Method: Diabetic foot diseases cause many negativities in the life processes of sick individuals and reduce the individual's potential to adapt to social and cultural life. This process will be a chaotic life cycle for the patient and his family. This situation, the thought of a tragic future, puts him and his family in a spiral of economic and psychological problems. The patient is exposed to psychological, pathological and sociological problems through this process. It is possible to state that there are universal principles of health management for ethnic and cultural formations living in the world (Kızılçelik, 1996:69). In this context, sociology of health examines people's attitudes and behaviors against diseases, socio-cultural and economic reasons of patients. It deals with the social class relations with the disease, demographic structure, many factors such as poverty, divorce, unemployment and death, and the relations with the relatives of the patients (Kızılçelik, 1996:70). Result: Sociology explores the meanings and causes behind human behavior. Health sociology, on the other hand, analyzes the relationship between the socio-cultural life of people and the disease, the response to diseases and health policies. The concepts of illness and health are closely related to the society in which people live. In this study, it was aimed to bring the life cycle of diabetic foot patients to a livable state and to increase their quality of life. Preventive health practices and developments in public health are important in the development of health sociology. The solution of the problems of diabetic foot diseases should be considered together within the framework of sociology and management science.