Abstract
Objective: To review all the studies on diabetic foot disorders (DFDs) that were published on the PubMed? site aiming to identify the contributions of the different Arabs’ countries in the world scientific literature on this topic. Methods: The PubMed? site was searched using different key words for searching all the abstracts on Diabetes mellitus (DM) and DFDs published from Arabs’ League countries (n = 22). For this review, the 22 countries were classified into 3 groups: Group 1 (G1): Gulf Council Countries (GCC) countries (n = 6), Group 2 (G2): African Arabs’ countries (n = 10), Group 3 (G3): Asian and/or Eastern Mediterranean Arabs’ countries (n = 6). All the abstracts on DM coming from all of the 22 Arabs’ countries were initially reviewed to locate the ones related to DFDs’ management. All of the articles related to DFDs were reviewed by the senior author. A publication index was created to allow a comparison between the productivity of various countries and correlate that to the population number. Results: By April 2012, a total of 906 articles were published on DM, out of them 115 (11.6%) were related to DFDs. The largest number of DM/DFDs research came from G1 countries (n = 437/51) followed by G2 (n = 307/38) and finally G3 (n = 162/26). The percentages of the studies related to DFDs were therefore: 11.6%, 12.3% and 20.6% respectively. Saudi Arabia was the top on the list of all studied countries with 31 studies related to DFDs out of the 187 on DM (16.5%). Conclusion: More research on DFDs is needed in most of the Arabs’ countries particularly those in the GCC region which reported very high prevalence rates and are expected to hold these rates for the coming decades. Also, special attention is needed for those low-income Arabs’ countries that had no contributions in DFDs’ research.
Highlights
The term Arabs’ countries or Arabs’ World usually refers to The Arab League countries which is composed of 22 countries that stretch on two continents (Asia and Africa) on a large geographical area from the Gulf States and Iraq on the eastern side to Morocco and Mauritania on the western side with a total population of approximately 358 million [1]
The largest number of Diabetes mellitus (DM)/diabetic foot disorders (DFDs) research came from Group 1 (G1) countries (n = 437/51) followed by Group 2 (G2) (n = 307/38) and Group 3 (G3) (n = 162/26)
By April 2012, a total of 906 studies were published on the PubMed® site on DM; out of them 115 (11.6%) were related to DFDs (Table 1)
Summary
The term Arabs’ countries or Arabs’ World usually refers to The Arab League countries which is composed of 22 countries that stretch on two continents (Asia and Africa) on a large geographical area from the Gulf States and Iraq on the eastern side to Morocco and Mauritania on the western side with a total population of approximately 358 million [1]. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) statistics of 2011, Six Arabs’ countries are on the list of the top ten countries that reported highest prevalence rates of DM among 20 - 79-year-old adults globally [3] These countries in descending order are: Kuwait (21.1%), Lebanon (20.2%), Qatar 20.2%, Saudi Arabia SA 20.0%, Bahrain (19.9%) and the United Arab Emirates UAE (19.2%). Egypt is the only Arab country on the list of the top ten countries that have the largest number of diabetic patients as it occupies the ninth position on the list with a total number of 7.3 million diabetics in 2011 and that number is expected to increase to reach 12.4 million by year 2030 [3]
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