Risk of Diabetic Foot Ulcer in Patients of Diabetes Mellitus Visiting a Private Setting of South Punjab, Pakistan
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the risk of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) among diabetes mellitus (DM) patients visiting outpatient department of a private healthcare setting.Methods
A cross-sectional study performed at the outpatient department of medicine, Aleena Hospital, Bahawalpur, Pakistan from 1st July 2021 to 30th June 2022. We included patients of both genders aged above 18 years and known cases of DM with disease duration of ≥ 6 months. Medical record was checked while clinical history was taken and foot examination was performed.Results
In a total of 781 patients, 394 (50.4%) were female. The mean age, weight, height and BMI were 50.19±12.21 years, 74.08±16.41 kg, 5.52±0.31 feet and 30.80±7.07 kg/m2 respectively. Residential status of 498 (63.8%) patients was rural. There were 778 (99.6%) cases that had type-2 DM (T2DM). There were 443 (56.7%) patients who had no risk for DFU while neuropathy, PAD/foot deformity and neuropathy + PAD/foot deformity were identified among 205 (26.2%0, 97 (12.4%) and 36 (4.6%) patients respectively. Increasing age (p<0.001), residential status as rural (p=0.025), higher BMI (p=0.006), increased disease duration of DM (p=0.002), hypertension (p=0.050) and smoking (p=0.006) were found to have significant association with risk of DFU.Conclusion
High proportion of DM patients were at risk of DFU. Increasing age, rural residential status, higher BMI, increased disease duration of DM, hypertension and smoking had significant association with the risk of DFU.Keywords:
Diabetic foot ulcer, glycemic control, hypertension, smokingPublished
2022/12/18
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