A study of diabetic patients' awareness about diabetic foot care to prevent complications.

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Diabetic patient’s knowledge of how to take care of their feet plays an important role in preventing these complications with a reduced social, medical and economic burden of its consequences including foot ulcers and amputation. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices that affects the diabetic foot ulcers. Aim To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding diabetic foot care among diabetic patients. Methods It is a cross-sectional study conducted from January 25, 2022 to March 15, 2022 at Diabetic clinic, Damascus Hospital. Non‐randomized, non‐probability convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from 249 patients by using a validated and confidential questionnaire. Results The mean age of patients was 54.19 years with 54% male and 46% female patients. Majority of patients had diabetes for more than 10 years. and most of them had Type 2 Diabetes, also more than half of the patients stopped their education in middle school. An important percentage of having a family history of Diabetes was found. In addition, many of the patients take oral hypoglycemic medications with regulatory drugs for Diabetes. More than half of these patients had peripheral neuropathy. The mean scores for knowledge, attitude, and practice were 8.74, 2.97, and 7.95, respectively, all statistically significant. Conclusion Our study population has sufficient knowledge about diabetes and its foot complication, and they had a positive attitude towards its management. However, they were lagging in the practices required for diabetic foot management.