Abstract:

Background: Diabetic ulcer disease is a serious complication and imposes a burden on the patient, family and health care system. If left untreated in uncontrolled diabetes mellitus may affect the Quality of life.

Objective: To determine the prevalence, practice and contributing factors of foot ulcers among adult diabetic patients attending clinic at Bugando Medical Centre.

Methodology: This study was a prospective hospital-based study conducted at Bugando Medical Centre Diabetic Clinic. The data was collected by using a designed questionnaire and was analysed by using SPSS version 20. Chi squared test with a P-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: About 161 adult patients aged 18 years of age and above were recruited. The prevalence of diabetic foot ulcer was 10.6%. The major factor causing diabetic ulcer was trauma accounted for 52.9% and the practice of preventing of DFU among diabetic patients was 63.5%.

Conclusion: Prevalence of diabetic foot ulcer is high in BMC among adult diabetic patients, but the practice is good. Setting-specific interventions and innovations are critical to improving health of Diabetes mellitus patients who are attending diabetic clinics in BMC, given the observed differences between factors. The awareness campaign messages to for awareness to lifestyle changes should be tailored to diabetic patients and older people aged more than 45 years.