Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a serious, complex, and chronic disease, where many complications can affect and threaten the individual’s life. Foot ulcers are one of the most serious and costly complications of diabetes, they contribute significantly to the patients morbidity and mortality. Diabetic patients with foot ulcers require long hospitalization, rehabilitation, increased need for home care and social services and carry risk of lower extremity amputations which usually preceded by a foot ulcer. Of note, many of these ulcers are preventable. Data on prevalence of foot ulcers among diabetics are important to assess the burden of foot complications and to plan preventive measures. In Jordan there is paucity of data on such complications and associated risk factors.

Objective: This thesis examines the prevalence of foot ulcers and the risk factors that lead to foot ulceration among diabetic patients attending the Ministry of Health (MOH) diabetic clinics.

Setting: Two ministry of health centers (MOH) in Amman (Prince Hamzh Hospital (PHH), Albasheer Hospital)

Subjects: We included 1000 patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes twenty years of age and morefrom two centers (Prince Hamzh Hospital (PHH), Albasheer Hospital) during the period from December 2013 till 15th march 2014.

Main outcome measures: Diabetic foot ulcers, peripheral sensory neuropathy, lower limb ischemia, foot deformities, lower limb amputations, risk category, obesity, smoking and hypertension.

Patients and methods: This is a cross sectional study of patients with both type 1and type 2 diabetes conducted at two centers of ministry of health (MOH) in Amman (Prince Hamzh Hospital (PHH), Albasheer Hospital).

Results: This study included a total of 1000 patients (428 males and 572 females).the Mean age was 57.2 years, Mean duration of DM in years 9.5 years Eighty-six patients were found to have foot ulcers (prevalence 8.6%). Foot at risk was identified in 359 patients 35.9% (0.5% patients in risk category-1, 2.2% patients in risk category -2 and 33.2% patients in risk category-3). 13.5% had loss of protective sensation according to the 10g mono-filament, 10.5% had loss of vibratory sensation proved by the tuning fork test, 35.8% had callus, 57.% had dryness. 9.4% had loss of dorsa lispedis pulse, 3% Advanced Nursing & Patient Care International Journal https://chembiopublishers.com/ANPCIJ/ Submit Manuscript @ https://chembiopublishers.com/submit-manuscript.php 2 had loss of posterior tibial pulse, and 5.1% had intermittent claudicating. Loss of protective sensation (p< 0.005) and loss of vibratory sensation (p