Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: July-September | Volume: 4 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 150-157
Awareness and Practices of Foot Care in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus in an Urban Area in Puducherry
Vighnesh C S1, Surendar Rangaswamy2, Arthi M2
1 Intern, SVMCH&RC, Ariyur, Puducherry,
2Assistant Professor; Department of Community Medicine, SVMCH&RC, Ariyur,
ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a potential epidemic with an exponentially growing Prevalence across the globe. In the Region of South East Asia including India there is an established prevalence of 82 million as of 2017 with an expected increase by 84% to an estimated 151 million by 2045. About 10-15% of diabetic patients develop foot ulcers at some point of time during the course of the disease. These ulcers frequently become infected and are the common cause of lower extremity amputation. This study was done to determine the level of knowledge and attitude of patients with diabetes mellitus towards diabetic neuropathy and foot ulcer attending a primary health center.
Aim: This study was taken up in order to assess the Knowledge and Practices of foot care in patients with diabetes mellitus from an urban area in South India in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study performed by interviewing 60 patients who attended the Diabetic Clinic and Out Patient Departments in a Primary Health Centre in an urban setting in Puducherry. The data thus collected was compiled and analyzed by one-way ANOVA.
Results: In the present study the Mean (SD) of Awareness and Practices of foot care were 4.63 (2.71) and 4.23 (1.93) respectively. Low mean scores were significantly associated with increasing age (p<0.05) and not receiving advise on foot care from doctors. Only 45% of them were educated on diabetic foot care whereas 83.3% of them were advised on physical activity. Only 5% of the subjects had good knowledge, 15% had a satisfactory level and 80% of the subjects had poor or very poor knowledge regarding foot care in patients with diabetes mellitus. An even lesser proportion of the study population (3.33%) had good practices towards their foot care. 17% had satisfactory practices while 80% of the study population had poor or very poor practices of foot care. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.79) was observed between the level of knowledge and practices of foot care which was statistically insignificant (p = 1.00).
Conclusion: Low mean scores of knowledge and practices of foot care in patients with diabetes mellitus along with the strong positive correlation between the two, in addition to the exponential rise in incidence and cost for the treatment of both diabetes mellitus and its complications suggest an overwhelming need for early educational intervention on foot care in patients with diabetes mellitus. Limitations: Limitations of this study includes the low sample size.
Key words: Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetic Foot Care, Peripheral Neuropathy, Micro-vascular Complication of Diabetes Mellitus.