Abstract
Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most challenging health problems in developing and developed world. It impacts all aspects of the body, including the feet. It usually starts with a small ulcer and progresses to a lethal gangrene, which may eventually require amputation and may end up with septicemia or death.
Objectives: To evaluate the knowledge and practices regarding foot care among people with diabetes attending Jazan diabetic center and determine the Wrong behavior, as well as stress upon the importance of such knowledge and practices in decreasing morbidity associated with diabetic foot disease.
Design: Diabetic Center Based descriptive, Cross-sectional Study.
Setting: Diabetic Center, Jazan, Saudi Arabia.
Method: Direct questionnaire on 132 participants who meets the inclusion criteria using 9.5% proportion of DM among population with 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error under WHO software for sample size determination.
Main outcome measures: Good level of knowledge about foot care, with one third of young respondents found to have good practice of foot care.
Results: The results showed most of respondent had better level of knowledge about foot care as compared to prior studies. Despite good knowledge about foot care, only one third were found to have good practice of foot care, young respondents in their second and third decades significantly had better level of practice compared to those aged sixty or older.
Conclusions: We found three-quarter of people with DM are knowledgeable about foot care, but one third of them well practiced foot care; these were associated with older age and poor economic status. Findings highlights gaps in practice of foot care and necessitate devoting rigorous efforts in educating diabetic patients about the importance of foot care through educational programs and routine counseling to minimize the odds of developing diabetic foot and associated problems.
Limitations: This study has some limitations, the cross-sectional nature of the study; we couldn't assess the difference in clinical outcomes in relation to knowledge and practice levels. Also, the sample was not representative of all geographical zones of Jazan region so the findings may not be enough to apply on all population.