Prevalence of Diabetic Foot Ulcer in Lahore, Pakistan: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract: Diabetes Mellitus is one of the largest universal st health emergencies of the 21 century. Diabetes is a group of inborn errors of metabolism which results from either defect in insulin or insulin action or both. Now a days, prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing worldwide, especially young and fat people are affected by this disease. Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) is a longlasting diabetes syndrome and one of the most popular and dreaded issue of DM. Objective: To nd out the prevalence of diabetic foot ulcer in Lahore, Pakistan. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, 1000 patients affected with diabetes mellitus were taken through convenient sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from patients. Study subjects consisted of Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes mellitus. Participants had diabetic foot ulcer and agreed to take part in this study. Data were collected from February 2017 to July 2017. Results: Out of 1000 subjects, 509 patients had diabetic foot ulcer and remaining patients were only diabetes mellitus. Total number of males and females with diabetic foot were 339 (66.6%) and 170 (33.4%) respectively. 306(60.1%) patients had a family history of ulcer. The overall prevalence of diabetic foot ulcer among the participants was found to be 50.9%. Conclusions: The prevalence of Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) in Lahore, Pakistan is 50.9%. Diabetes mellitus and poor knowledge of foot care were the major risk factors for DFU. Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetic Foot Ulcer, Visual Analysis Scale (VAS)