THURSDAY, February 4, 2021 (HealthDay News) – According to a study published online January 22nd in Diabetes Care, social deprivation in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes is linked to diabetes-related foot disease (DFD).
Jenny Riley from the University of Birmingham in the UK and colleagues investigated the association between social disadvantage and DFD incidents in newly diagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes. The analysis included 150,265 patients.
The researchers found that DFD developed in 12.1 percent of the study population over 3.27 years. Using the Townsend Deprivation Index, people in the most disadvantaged quintile had an increased risk of DFD compared to people in the least disadvantaged quintile (adjusted exposure ratio) [aHR], 1.22) when adapting to gender, age with type 2 diabetes diagnosis, ethnicity, smoking, body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, retinopathy, estimated glomerular filtration rate, insulin, glucose / lipid lowering drugs and basal foot risk. In addition, those in the least deprived quintile had a higher risk of peripheral neuropathy (aHR, 1.18), foot ulcers (aHR, 1.44), peripheral vascular disease (aHR, 1.40) compared to those in the least deprived quintile and lower limb amputation (aHR, 1.75) and gangrene (aHR, 8.49).
“Given the high individual and economic burdens of DFD, strategies are needed that target patients in socially disadvantaged areas in order to reduce health inequalities,” the authors write.
Summary / full text (subscription or payment required)
