Knowledge, practice, and challenges of diabetes foot care among patients at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Foot ulcer is a common complication of diabetes and the most devastating component of diabetes progression that is associated with high morbidity and mortality.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, practice, and challenges of diabetes foot care among patients with diabetes mellitus.

Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study assessed knowledge and practice of foot care among type I and type II patients with diabetes attending the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire with a reliability of 0.880. SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the data.

Results: The findings revealed that there is good knowledge of foot care, among 110 (50.0%) of the diabetic patients, while the practice of foot care was found to be poor among diabetic patients. It also shows the factor that statistically predicts the development of foot ulcers to include combined diet + oral medications + insulin treatment regimen (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.181, P = 0.016, confidence interval [CI] = 0.045-0.728), history of renal conditions (AOR = 0.115, P = 0.036, CI = 0.015-0.871), not receiving foot care education (AOR = 116.098, P < 0.001, CI = 12.497-1078.554), and receiving foot care education from nurses (AOR = 0.022, P = 0.001, CI = 0.002-0.216). Furthermore, 201 (91.4%) diabetes patients reported fatigue from completing the same task repeatedly, and 198 (90.0%) reported forgetfulness as obstacles to practicing foot care.

Conclusion: When creating DM Patients future care plans, nurses and other health-care administrators must take into account the difficulties and predicting factors related to the practice of diabetes foot care.