Knowledge about Management of the Diabetic Foot among Physicians in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction: In Saudi Arabia, the largest country in the Middle East, diabetes mellitus is identified as a common chronic disease with rapidly increasing incidence. Saudi Arabia has the second rank in the prevalence of diabetes among Middle East countries and the seventh rank internationally. This study aims to evaluate the level of physicians ’ awareness about diabetic foot and associated complications; and the influence of demographic factors on this knowledge.
Methods: This study followed a cross-sectional design. Physicians who work in hospitals and public health centers were included in this study. Physicians who were working in clinical practice for at least one year were included in the study. Physicians who were unwilling to participate in the study were excluded. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from physicians using the Google forms application. It consists of two sections, the first section questioning demographic and background variables such as age, sex, nationality, education, and source of knowledge about diabetes. The second section contains questions regarding the knowledge about diabetic complications such as the diabetic foot.
Results: A total sample of 388 physicians, working in the Eastern province, were included in this study. More than half of the respondents were females (59.3%) and the majority (98%) were Saudis. Regarding the specialty of the physicians, about 60% were either general practitioners or residents, whereas 29.4% and 10.8% were specialists or consultants, respectively. The knowledge about diabetes mellitus, majority (55.9%) of the physicians had poor knowledge about diabetes mellitus. Significant determinants for knowledge among the physicians were specialty and presence of previous training in diabetes mellitus.
Conclusions: The level of knowledge about diabetes foot among physicians was insufficient as the majority had inadequate levels of knowledge. Significant determinants for knowledge were a specialty and the presence of previous training on diabetes mellitus.