Improving diabetes foot care for people with dark skin tones

Diabetes Africa has produced a handbook for healthcare professionals to improve foot care for people with dark skin tone living with diabetes. Diabetes Footcare in Dark Skin Tones was written by experts from a range of professional backgrounds, including diabetes, tissue viability and podiatry.

Diabetes leads to nearly 10,000 amputations a year in the UK, many of which could be avoided through education, training and preventative measures. Outcomes for people of dark skin tones are different to those of counterparts with lighter skin colour. Poor understanding of how skin conditions manifest on dark skin is one reason for this disparity.

Using carefully worded and respectful language, the handbook provides essential information and quick tips to help healthcare professionals build confidence and expertise in accurately assessing people across the full spectrum of skin tones. Real-life examples illustrate how signs at different stages of diabetic foot disease can be interpreted correctly. Recognising less obvious signs in dark skin tones enables faster and more appropriate responses, and improved outcomes.

The authors hope that, as well as improving individual practice, this resource will transform our collective understanding of healthcare and achieve a more inclusive and effective system.

The handbook can be downloaded here.