Takeaway
- Risk for hospital-acquired foot ulcers (HAFU) is at least 2-fold greater among people with diabetes vs those without diabetes.
Why this matters
- Patients with diabetic foot ulceration are at increased risk of progression to more serious complications including cellulitis, necrosis, osteomyelitis, septicaemia, amputation, and death.
- Study highlights the association between people with diabetes for HAFU and aims to increase awareness of this risk among physicians.
Study design
- About 2 years of hospital inpatient data were collected and patient with diabetes (n=5043; aged >50 years; ≥48 hours after admission) were compared with patients without diabetes (n=23,599) to analyse the risk for HAFU.
- Funding: The Diabetes Centre Research Funds.
Key results
- Significant differences between patients with diabetes and without diabetes among a range of covariates including:
- sex (% male): (52.2% vs 45.4%; P<.001);
- comorbidity score: (3.01 vs 2.27; P<.001) and
- length of hospital stay: 7 vs 6 days (median interquartile range [IQR], 2-39 vs 2-33 days, respectively; P<.001).
- After adjustment for confounders, persistent significant increase in the risk for HAFU was seen in patients with diabetes (OR, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.87-2.62).
- No substantial differences between clinically relevant subgroups.
Limitations
- Some community-acquired foot ulcers were not identified.
- Grade 1 ulcers not included.
References
References