Footcare knowledge and practice among diabetic patients attending primary health care centers in Jazan region, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background Diabetic foot is one of the significant complications of diabetes mellitus, associated with a high risk of morbidity and mortality. Patients' knowledge of, and willingness to practice, good footcare are essential and may decrease these risks. This study was conducted to assess adult diabetic patients' knowledge of footcare and willingness to put their knowledge into practice. Method A cross‐sectional observational study was conducted on adult diabetic patients in the central area of the Jazan Region using patients' responses to a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were calculated for study variables, and the Pearson chi‐squared test was used to compare categorical data. Results A total of 410 diabetic patients were included in this study. The mean age of the participants was 56.7 years. The mean duration of their diabetes mellitus (DM) to date was 9.2 years, and 63% had complications of diabetes. For the questionnaire, 56% of the patients gave incorrect responses to the knowledge of the footcare section and 81% to the willingness to practice footcare section. Highly educated patients have better knowledge and practice of diabetic footcare than those who are less educated (77% vs. 23%, p < 0.05), (37% vs. 20%, p < 0.05), respectively. A statistically significant difference exists between patients with good and poor knowledge scores. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the knowledge and practice of footcare among DM patients are poor. Therefore, appropriate patient information programs are needed to increase patients' understanding of their illness and how to manage it.

Sensitivity Profile of Fosfomycin, Nitrofurantoin, and Co-trimoxazole Against Uropathogens Isolated From UTI Cases in a Secondary Care Center, KSA

“…Enterobacteriaceae were shown to be the most common family of bacteria recovered from UTI patients in our study. This result is consistent with earlier studies conducted in several countries, including Saudi Arabia [13,14], where E. coli was found to be the most commonly isolated bacterium for UTIs, followed by K. pneumoniae. In our study, Gram-positive cocci, such as E. faecalis, accounted for nearly a third of UTI cases.…”

Knowledge and Practice of Foot Care among Patients with Diabetes Attending Diabetes Center, Saudi Arabia

“…Additionally, a higher proportion of foot care practice was found among patients who did not experience a foot ulcer (88.9%), amputation (97.2%), and did not have ulcers, sores, or blisters on their feet (91.7%), did not have blood or discharge in their socks (99.1%), and had no callus (74.1%). Consistent with these findings, the results of previous similar studies reported that diabetic patients without diabetes complications had significantly higher knowledge and better foot care practice than those with complications [29,44,45]. These findings were consistent with the results by Guell et al [46], who reported that lower knowledge and practice scores, as expected, might make patients more vulnerable to complications.…”

“…These results align with previous international studies reporting deficiencies in knowledge and practice regarding foot care among patients with diabetes [26][27][28]. A recent similar study conducted in Saudi Arabia on more than 400 adult patients with diabetes in Jazan showed that 56% of the patients had wrong answers to foot care knowledge questions [29].…”

“…For other patients' characteristics, several studies have examined the association between education level, knowledge scores, and practice of foot care among patients with diabetes. These studies consistently found that patients with lower education levels had less knowledge about foot care compared with their counterparts [29,32,33]. Patient education plays a crucial role in enhancing knowledge of appropriate foot care, which reduces the risk of foot ulceration and amputation in high-risk diabetic individuals [39].…”