Factors influencing foot care behaviour among patients with diabetes: An integrative literature review

Abstract

Aim:The aim of the study was to examine factors influencing diabetic foot care behaviours (DFCBs) among patients with diabetes.Design: An Integrative review using the Whittemore & Knafl five-stage framework. Methods:A systematic search was performed to retrieve relevant peer-reviewed literature published in English between 2011 and 2021 across three electronic databases: CINAHL, Medline (PubMed) and Scopus. Following the quality appraisal, 35 papers were included in this review.Results: This review revealed that patients' DFCBs were suboptimal. Additionally, four emerging themes were identified as the predictors of DFCB, namely: demographic characteristics as predictors of diabetic foot care behaviour; illness beliefs and perceptions as predictors of diabetic foot care behaviour; foot care knowledge as a predictor of diabetic foot care behaviour and foot care education as a predictor of diabetic foot care behaviour. This calls for nurses to devise educational strategies that adequately address these determinants to drive long-term positive DFCB among patients. K E Y W O R D S diabetic foot care behaviour, diabetic foot care practice, integrative review [Corrections added on 9 May 2023 after first online publication: The year 2020 has been updated to 2021 in the Methods section of the abstract and Ming Wei Jeffrey Woo's degrees have been updated.]