Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diabetic foot trophic disorders and their complications leading to the risk of amputation remain a major public health problem. The objective of our work was to determine the level of podiatric risk in our diabetic patients according to the classification of the International Working Group of the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) in order to reduce the rate of amputation and study their level of education and correlate it to podiatric risk.

Methods: This is a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study including all diabetics hospitalized at the National Institute of Nutrition in Tunis for chronic diabetes imbalance, carried out over a period of two months (July – August 2019).

Results: The mean age of the patients was 55.08 ± 14.22 years. The sex ratio was 0.67. The majority of our patients were type 2 diabetics (90.24%). During the clinical examination of the foot, plantar hyperkeratosis was the most noted manifestation (65.85%). Based on the IWGDF classification, 42.68% of patients had a grade 0 podiatric risk. Regarding the overall educational level, 76.83% poorly educated patients and 23.17% educated patients were noted. The overall educational level is significantly associated with the podiatric grade (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Therapeutic education or even podiatric education of the patient is important in the prevention of complications of the foot. Patient-centered training in foot care practice in public health facilities would reduce the rate of morbidity and mortality from complicated diabetic foot.