Awareness about foot care and factors affecting its practice among urban slum dwellers with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus of Vellore

Susan Jacob, (2020) Awareness about foot care and factors affecting its practice among urban slum dwellers with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus of Vellore. Masters thesis, Christian Medical College, Vellore.

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic progressive disease of abnormal carbohydrate metabolism characterized by hyperglycemia either due to relative or absolute impairment in the insulin secretion along with varying degrees of peripheral resistance to the action of insulin. Insulin plays a very important role in the overall metabolism of the body. In carbohydrate metabolism, insulin helps to decrease the blood glucose level by increasing the uptake of glucose by tissues. Uncontrolled diabetes results in high blood glucose level, over a long period of time results in potential damage to different systems of the body with a high propensity to the neurovascular system. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the awareness about foot care and its practice among people with diabetes mellitus in urban slums of Vellore. 2. To determine the factors influencing the practice of foot care among people with diabetes mellitus in sample population. 3. To recognize people with high-risk feet among the sample population. METHODOLOGY: The present study is a cross-sectional study. We administered a standardized structured questionnaire via face to face interview at community to assess the knowledge, practice and the reasons for their practice in people with diabetes living in the urban slum areas of Vellore. The data entry was done using Epidata version 3.1. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS statistics software. RESULTS: We included 198 subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus from the five urban slums of Vellore. Of the study population 69.2% consisted of women and the mean age of the population is 56.6 years. While 38.4% of study had no formal school education, 37.4% had done secondary education, and only 2 % present did further education after 10th std. Majority of the study population were Hindus accounting for 83.8%. About 57.1% were unemployed, 30.8% does manual work for daily wages. Of the study population 54% were diagnosed with diabetes mellitus within 5 years. 87.9% are on oral hypoglycaemic agents while 7.6% were on both insulin and antidiabetic agents. Only 9 participants were on diet control alone. 30.3% had uncontrolled sugars with HbA1c higher than 6.5. Among the participants 8.6% had history of foot ulcers. Using biothesiometer 60.6% of the participants were found to have peripheral neuropathy indicating presence of high risk foot. The mean knowledge score of the study population was 9.05 indicating poor knowledge. Only 7 study participants had very good knowledge i.e. a score more than 18 while 31.8% had good knowledge with score between 12-18. About 64.6% had a score less than 12 and was graded as poor knowledge. The mean practice score of the study population is 29.24 indicating a poor practice. 62.1% had poor practice while 33.8% had good practice and only 7 participants had very good practice. From the study the most common reason for the practice of foot care was either the health care provider or family members told them. The most common reason for the poor practice was lack of knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: This study along with other similar studies revealed there is significant correlation between knowledge and practice. As the knowledge improves practice also improves. Thus the role of knowledge in primary prevention of foot ulcer established. Health education to improve knowledge will help to improve practice and thus prevent future complications.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Additional Information: 124150
Uncontrolled Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, foot care, knowledge, practice, reasons, urban, slum.
Subjects: MEDICAL > Paediatric Medicine
Depositing User: Subramani R
Date Deposited: 06 Feb 2021 04:58
Last Modified: 06 Feb 2021 04:58
URI: http://repository-tnmgrmu.ac.in/id/eprint/13925

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