Knowledge and practice of foot self-care among Jordanians with diabetes: An interview-based survey study

OBJECTIVE: To examine knowledge and practice of foot care among Jordanian patients with diabetes. METHOD: An ethically-approved Arabic language questionnaire was used to interview participants recruited from five Jordanian governorates. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 16). Total scores for knowledge and practice were computed, and were classified as poor (<50%), satisfactory (50-70%) or good (>70%). RESULTS: Out of 1085 participants, 51.1% were males and 48.8% were females. The average age was 53.3 years (SD=13.3 years), with over half (54.0%) were between 41-60 years of age. More than half of knowledge scores were within the range 'good', in which there was around 6% of the practice scores. Those classified as having poor knowledge amounted to 7.2%, whilst those classified as exercising poor practice amounted to 42%. Statistically significant associations were established between level of education and knowledge (p<0.001) as well as practice (p<0.006). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated discrepancies between knowledge and practice in relation to foot care. Efforts are required to reduce these discrepancies between knowledge and the real practice of foot self-care, taking into account the patients' levels of education and the cultural context.