Foot self-care behaviour in type 2 diabetes adults with and without comorbid heart failure.
Fekadu Aga, Sandra B Dunbar, Tedla Kebede and 3 others
PMID 35678585WHAT IT FOUND
Poor foot self-care was similar in T2D adults with and without heart failure: 54.3% and 53.3% respectively.
Correlates differed: income and medication count with heart failure; social support and BMI without.
Key findings
01Poor foot self-care was common and did not differ significantly between T2D adults with and without comorbid heart failure (54.3% without heart failure and 53.3% with heart failure).
02For adults without heart failure, not being married was associated with about 3.8 times higher odds of daily foot self-care, each 1-unit social support increase was associated with 18.9% higher odds, and each 1 kg/m² BMI increase was associated with 26.4% lower odds.
03For adults with heart failure, modest household income versus hand-to-mouth was associated with 60.6% lower odds of daily foot self-care, and each additional daily medication was associated with 26.6% lower odds.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Done at one tertiary hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, so findings may not apply to other settings or regions. Cross-sectional design cannot show whether income, medications, social support, marital status or BMI caused poorer foot self-care. Stepwise logistic regression cannot rule out unforeseen confounders. The main outcome was self-report of foot self-care days in the last week, using two items. Participants with uncorrected hearing problems were excluded. All eligible people invited agreed to participate, possibly because the available glycated haemoglobin test acted as an incentive.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that heart failure worsens foot self-care. Poor foot self-care was similar in both groups (54.3% without heart failure and 53.3% with heart failure, p = 0.890), and the cross-sectional design cannot establish causality.