Diabetic foot is a severe public health issue, yet rare studies investigated its global epidemiology. A systematic review and meta-analysis through searching PubMed, EMBASE, ISI Web of science, and Cochrane database was done. Global diabetic foot ulcer prevalence was 6.3% (95%CI: 5.4–7.3%), which was higher in males (4.5%, 95%CI: 3.7–5.2%) than in females (3.5%, 95%CI: 2.8–4.2%), and higher in type 2 diabetic patients (6.4%, 95%CI: 4.6–8.1%) than in type 1 diabetics (5.5%, 95%CI: 3.2–7.7%). North America had the highest prevalence (13.0%, 95%CI: 10.0–15.9%), Oceania had the lowest (3.0%, 95% CI: 0.9–5.0%), and the prevalence in Asia, Europe, and Africa were 5.5% (95%CI: 4.6–6.4%), 5.1% (95%CI: 4.1–6.0%), and 7.2% (95%CI: 5.1–9.3%), respectively. Australia has the lowest (1.5%, 95%CI: 0.7–2.4%) and Belgium has the highest prevalence (16.6%, 95%CI: 10.7–22.4%), followed by Canada (14.8%, 95%CI: 9.4–20.1%) and USA (13.0%, 95%CI: 8.3–17.7%).
The patients with diabetic foot ulcer were older, had a lower body mass index, longer diabetic duration, and had more hypertension, diabetic retinopathy, and smoking history than patients without diabetic foot ulceration. Our results provide suggestions for policy makers in deciding the prevention strategy of diabetic foot ulceration in the future.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07853890.2016.1231932journalCode=iann20
https://www.idf.org/our-activities/care-prevention/diabetic-foot.html
