The effect of self-care programe on foot healing in diabetic patients

Diabetes is a major endocrine disorder and is characterized by metabolic abnormalities, retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy and atherosclerosis. In this disease, the patients play important role in their treatment. Therefore, this study was performed to show the importance of self-care on foot healing of diabetic patients. In this quasi-experimental study, 54 diabetic patients with foot wound were randomly divided into two groups of case (n=30) and control (n=24). The case group was followed up for 3 months after 3 or 4 self-care educational sessions about insulin ejection, drug administration, diet and wound care. In order to evaluate the outcome of educational program, a checklist was filled every other week. Also wound condition was checked 1, 2 and 3 months after the intervention. HbA1c was measured before and after the intervention as self-care criteria. The amount of HbA1c was not different between two groups before intervention but it decreased in the case group 3 months after the intervention (p<0.05). Also the wound recovery grade increased (p<0.05) in the case group 3 months after the intervention. Findings of this study showed that self-care in the diabetic patients has a great