By Colin Kenny, Editor – Diabetes Distilled
Investigators wanted to find out whether social deprivation in the presence of diabetes is an independent predictor of developing a foot ulcer and separately of mortality. They performed a primary-care-based retrospective analysis looking back over 10.5 years. Demographic characteristics, indices of social deprivation and clinical variables were assessed at baseline. This study confirms high mortality rates in individuals with diabetes-related foot ulcers. In addition, socioeconomic disadvantage was found to lead to an increased burden of mortality in people with diabetes who develop foot ulceration.
In this study investigators examined new foot ulceration (in those without a history of foot ulcers) and all-cause mortality. Demographic characteristics, indices of social deprivation and clinical variables were assessed at baseline. The investigators found 13,955 adults with type 1 (n=1370) or type 2 diabetes (n=12,585), with a mean age of 69.4 years.
The incidence of foot ulceration was greater in individuals with type 2 compared with type 1 diabetes. The occurrence was similar by sex, but increased with age and social deprivation. The risk of death increased by 14% per quintile of deprivation. The investigators suggested that modeling of foot ulceration risk needs to take socioeconomic disadvantage into account.
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