The Self-care Practi ces of Foot among Pati ents with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the Asian Populati ons: A Systemati c Review

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a highly prevalent chronic disease all over the world. It has become the main reason for non-traumati c amputati on. Major amputati on occurs every 20 seconds, as a result of diabetic foot problems caused by poor foot care. The main purpose of this study is to determine the self-care practices of foot among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Asian populations. The systematic review design was applied to find out the self-care practices of the foot. Thus, Pub Med, CINAHL, Science Direct, and Wiley Online Library were searched, and 1390 arti cles published in English between 2016 and 2021 were identi fi ed. The PRISMA filtering technique with inclusion and exclusion criteria focused on selecting the best articles. Finally, seven arti cles were selected and analyzed critically to detect findings. Three themes emerged from the findings: poor foot care practices among Asians, mal-practices of foot selfcare, and mal-practices of using footwear. A signifi - cant percentage of diabeti c patients in the Asian region follow poor foot care practi ces and they follow many mal practi ces of diabeti c foot care such as not trimming toenails straight across, cleaning their nails with sharp objects, and not applying any moisturizer on the foot skin to avoid dryness. Further, malpracti ces of using footwear leading to foot injuries were identi fi ed, such as not checking the inside of shoes before wearing, not measuring the foot size when selecti ng footwear, and wearing barefoot indoors and outdoors frequently. In conclusion, the malpracticesces of diabetic foot self-care and the malpractices of using footwear are infl uenti al factors for the development of various foot complications ons as well as increasing foot amputations. Thus, healthcare practitioners should maintain ongoing education on initiatives to ensure proper foot-care practices.