Scholarly record

PROPHYLACTIC FOOTWEAR IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH DIABETES MELLITUS

S. Treterova, P. Jurenikova

Abstract

Introduction: One of the objectives of complex education of diabetic patients is to prevent the development of diabetic foot syndrome. All diabetics, including seniors, should undergo preventive education on complex leg care. Awareness and compliance with appropriate foot care, which also includes the selection of high-quality prophylactic footwear, assists in the diabetic foot syndrome. In the paper we focused on the use of preventive footwear for the elderly people. In this article the attention was focused on the use of health insurance contributions when purchasing quality footwear. At the same time, the real state of the respondents' shoes was assessed by direct non-standardized observation. Methods: Data collection was conducted through a technique of structured interview focused on the area of education and knowledge portfolio of suitable diabetic footwear for the solved target social group and at the same time direct observation, which investigated the real state of senior shoes with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Results: The sample consisted of 278 seniors with a diagnosis of Diabetes mellitus, 134 (48.0 %) men and 144 (52.0 %) women. The research showed that 40.0 % of respondents use prophylactic shoes and are decreasing with the increasing age of wearing these shoes. Existing footwear showed the following parameters: closed pattern shoes (95.0 %), firm outsole (80.0 %), velcro fastening and lacing (71.0 %). Conclusions: Using appropriate education to lead seniors with diabetes mellitus to purchase prophylactic footwear with the benefit of health insurance. And thus, the wearing of preventive footwear, which reduces the risk of foot injuries in comparison with conventional footwear.

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