A Review of Patient’s Knowledge and Practice of Diabetic Foot Self-Care

Since diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are common among diabetes patients, it is essential to increase patients’ knowledge and self-care practices to ensure early recognition and management and reduce amputation risk. Therefore, the goal of this review was to identify the range and level of knowledge of people with DFUs and the type of self-care they undertake. A literature review was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed and Google scholar with ‘diabetic foot’, ‘self-care’, ‘practice’ and ‘behaviour’ as searching keywords. The identification and selection process were conducted to sort the eligible papers through the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The criteria are the original papers describing knowledge and practice in DFU; reporting knowledge and practice in their non-intervention studies; writing in English language; and publishing between years 2016 and 2022. The eligible papers were assessed using the strength of reporting observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) checklist for appraising their quality. Twenty-two papers of 2,073 titles met the inclusion criteria and included in the review. The lowest and the highest quality score of included papers based on STROBE checklist are 11 and 26, respectively. The included papers showed various levels of knowledge from good to poor, which prominent the highest percentage are 88 (good knowledge) and 84.8 (poor knowledge). The majority of the foot-care activities found in the reviewed papers involved the following steps: washing, drying, applying moisturiser and trimming nails routinely. Those activity should be followed by checking the feet with a mirror for ulcers, looking for ingrown nails, choosing appropriate footwear, not walking barefoot and routinely consulting a healthcare provider. The knowledge levels were found variable and acceptable. Daily foot care, choosing the right footwear, foot activity and regular health checks should all be used to manage diabetes. © Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2024.