Objective: To assess foot-care behaviour in diabetics attending a tertiary care hospital, and to see if there are any influencing factors.
Methods: The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from September to November 2017 at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised diabetes patients either admitted to the wards or attending the outpatient clinics. Foot-care behaviour was assessed through the validated Nottingham Assessment of Functional Foot-care scale. A score over 50 demonstrated adequate foot-care behaviour. The score was correlated with several variables. SPSS 23 was used for data analysis.
Results: Of the 400 individuals, 238(59.5%) were females and 162(40.5%) were males. The overall mean age was 52.71}11.84 years. Of the total, 228(57%) had never received any education on proper foot-care; 289(72.3%) had a scale score of less than or equal to 50. Urban or rural residence, monthly income, literacy level, family history of diabetes, and previous foot-care education provided by the healthcare provider were significant factors associated with good foot-care behaviour (p<0.05 each).
Conclusions: A majority of the patients demonstrated inadequate foot-care behaviour..
Keywords: Diabetic foot, Foot-care behaviour, NAFF, Pakistan.