Abstract
The incidence for diabetes mellitus in Saudi Arabia is high, along with its associated complications especially those of multiple micro and macrovascular complications with special concern to diabetic foot. The aim of this study is to assess the awareness of diabetic patients and their relatives about the care of diabetic foot at Al Baha province. Material and methods: A descriptive cross sectional study is performed and the data was collected through online self administered questionnaire. The collected data was coded and analyzed by SPSS version 28, in which both inferential and descriptive statistics were adopted. Student T-test and ANOVA were used. P<0.05 was considered significant. About 385 diabetic patients were included in this study, 52.7% was female. 45.2 % were aged between 20-29 years, patients experienced diabetes mellitus for < five years were 37.9% and >ten years were 36.6%. Results: 74.4% of the patients bear a satisfactory knowledge, 76.9% revealed a satisfactory practice and 59.70% showed a positive attitude, those patients who read and write only and below 20 years showed a low mean knowledge score. Furthermore, those having history of Diabetes ranged from 5 to 10 years and attained a middle school revealed a low attitude score and finally those suffering from DM >10 years showed a low practice, with significant difference. Conclusion: The awareness of diabetic foot care was good depending on the educational level and duration of diseases. So, more efforts with good counseling are needed to improve the awareness of diabetic patients and reduce its complications.