Nasibeh Vatankhah
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Aim: One of the main objectives of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational program to increase the knowledge and practice of proper foot care for people with type-2-diabetes. Methods: 148 people with type-2-diabetes underwent a structured interview using a questionnaire (DiFoKaPS-32). Each participant was surveyed about their knowledge and practices of foot care for people with type-2-diabetes. In addition to completing the questionnaire, each participant received an individual 20-min training session. The interviews and training sessions were conducted face-to-face. A follow-up evaluation was conducted after six months to ascertain the effectiveness of the initial education and training program. The follow-up evaluation consisted of face-to face interviews responding to the same questions as the original questionnaire. Results: Taken the population as a whole, the knowledge and practice of proper foot care for type-2-diabetes increased after the six months evaluation (P<0.0001 and P=0.011, respectively). However, further analysis of sub populations, indicated that only the lean (BMI≤25) population significantly improved in terms of proper foot care practice. Conclusions: The findings of this study have shown that a simple face-to-face education and training session is an effective method to improve the knowledge about foot care for people with type-2-diabetes. This study has suggested that the lean group had a higher increase in knowledge and practice in foot care than the obese group. This phenomenon warrants further research. The results shared here are based on the initial six months of this research and the long term results may vary from the data presented here.
Nasibeh Vatankhah is a medical Doctor who has graduated in 2009 from Tehran University of Medical Sciences. She has more than 9-years of medical research experience in diabetes and diabetic foot. She has been a researcher at the Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences (RIES) in Tehran since 2011. She has published more than 10 papers, and has co-authored a book entitled: Study Guides on Common Endocrine Disorders. Currently she is residing in the USA continuing her medical studies and her research work with RIES. She is a member of Iranian Medical Council, Wound Healing Discussion Board of Biochemistry Dept, Tehran University
