Introduction Objective Methodology If you did not seek treatment for your illness,

323 Efectiveness of the Diabetic Foot Care Programme in a Primary Care Setting ABSTRACT Effectiveness of the Diabetic Foot Care Programme in a Primary Care Setting Awisul Islah Ghazali 1 , Mohd Ikhwan Mohd Rusli 2 , Geok-Ping Chiew 2 , Shafina MohdYunus 2 , Abdul Karim Mohamad 2 , Syed Mud Puad Syed Amran 2 , Amar-Singh HSS 3,6 , Sondi Sararaks 4 , Ranjit Kaur Praim Singh 5 1 Taiping Hospital 2 Larut Matang Selama District Health Office 3 Clinical Research Centre Perak 4 Institute for Health Systems Research 5 Perak State Health Department 6 Department of Paediatrics, Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun Ipoh, Perak Introduction and Objectives Diabetes is a major and growing health problem in most countries causing considerable amount of disability, premature mortality, and loss of productivity as well as imposing increased demands on healthcare facilities. In Malaysia, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus has steadily increased over the years with an estimate of 0.65 in 1960, to 2.00 in 1982. Foot problems are a leading cause of hospitalisation and it was estimated that 15 of the people in the United States with diabetes will develop a serious foot condition some time in their lives. Currently, the diabetic foot care programme in Malaysia is based on the Clinical Practice Guideline CPG on the Management of Diabetic Foot that was issued in 2003 by the Ministry Of Health. For the district of Larut Matang Selama LMS, 6000 diabetic patient have been officially recorded into the diabetes registry and this number is increasing every year. A number of activities have been put in place to reduce the complication rate, and the nationwide diabetic foot care programme is one of them. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the foot care programme in the District of LMS. The assessment covered the extent of the implementation, knowledge of the patient and the delivery of the programme by the healthcare personnel. Methodology This study is a cross-sectional study on the implementation of a newly designed diabetic foot care programme in the District of LMS in Malaysia. This study was conducted over a period of eleven months from January 2007 to November 2007. All health clinics in the district were involved. The study was carried out during the diabetic clinic days in each of the clinics involved. The study was divided into two phases. An evaluation on the quality and problems arising from the foot care programme was done in the first phase, followed by an intervention phase and a re-evaluation of the patients who had received the new training.