A Study to Assess the Awareness and Practices of Foot Care among Diabetic Patients in the Selected Secondary Hospitals in Tamil Nadu

Background: Diabetic foot syndrome is one of the most common complications in diabetes mellitus which causes permanent disability and mortality in India. Foot complications can be prevented much earlier if adequate health education is given to the patients on time. The knowledge has a greater impact over the practice of an individual; therefore this study aims at assessing the awareness and practices of foot care among diabetic patients in selected secondary hospitals catered by the Community Health Department of Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamilnadu. Materials and Methods: This descriptive co-relational study was conducted among diabetic patients aged 18 years and above chosen from the diabetic clinic in the outpatient department of CHAD and RUHSA hospitals by systematic sampling. The sample size for the study is 100. A structured questionnaire developed by the investigator was used to collect data from the diabetic patients regarding their awareness and practice of foot care. Results: The majority of the subjects were in the age group of 45-60 years, most of them belonged to lower middle socioeconomic status and were illiterates. Majority of the participants had only moderate knowledge regarding foot care. Most of them had only moderately adequate practice of proper foot care. The study reveals that there was a positive correlation found between the knowledge and practice of the diabetic patients towards foot care which was statistically significant. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that health education on foot care at the earliest can change the practice of the patients and prevent them from devastating foot complications.