Prevalence of diabetic related foot disease in Palakkad, Kerala, INDIA

 

Asma PK¹, Muneer R E², Srikanth Putte Gowda², Pradeep Kumar KM³, Soopy Kayanaduth^3*

 

 

Abstract              Background: Diabetes related foot disease (DRFD) describes a number of complications of diabetes that can occur simultaneously or in isolation. Peripheral vascular disease (PVD), peripheral neuropathy (PN), foot ulceration and amputation contribute significantly to the high rates of morbidity and mortality affecting individuals with diabetes.Despite the great burden on the health care system and the individual, prevalence of this grave long term complication of DRFD has not been documented well in Kerala, India.The main objective of the study is to determine the prevalence of this grave complication of diabetes mellitus, DRFD. Methodology: This is a prospective study which is conducted in Kerala Medical College Hospital, Palakkad, during January -February 2018. The research encompasses a questionnaire that is a previously established survey tool that discloses the presence or absence of DRFD using self-reported symptoms. Four hundred and twenty diabetic patients both type I and type II, who came for their regular follow up were interviewed.The Edinburgh claudication Questionnaire (ECQ), the diabetic Neuropathy Symptom Score(NSS) and two questions relating to the remaining components of DRFD, foot ulcer and amputation were included. Result: On evaluating subjects with NSS 190 (45.2%) were having significant diabetic neuropathy symptom score (DNS) indicating that the vast majority of patients with diabetic neuropathy were symptomatic. On evaluating for symptoms of claudication using the Edinburgh Claudication Questionnaire (ECQ) 318 (75.7%) patients were having a score of zero which indicates that they did not have any symptoms of claudication and 102 (24.3%) of the included subjects were having both grade 1 and grade 2 claudication., 30 (7.1%) patients had positive history of ulceration in the lower extremities, regarding amputation 20 (4.76%) had positive history of amputation. Conclusion: The prevalence of DRFD using survey tool that is self- reported symptoms appear to be consistent with international reports of community prevalence for all components of DRFD.

Key Words: Diabetes related foot disease, Diabetes mellitus, Claudication, Peripheral neuropathy.