The Impact of Three-month Training Programme on Foot Care and Self-efficacy of Patients with Diabetic Foot Ulcers.

INTRODUCTION Patient's self-efficacy in disease management and foot care is considered as an important indicator in controlling the complications of diabetes. AIM This study was aimed to determine the effect of three-month training programme on foot care and self-efficacy of patients with diabetic foot ulcers. MATERIALS AND METHODS A quasi-experimental study was conducted on 60 patients with diabetic foot ulcers in Jiroft Imam Khomeini hospital from January 2016 to May 2016. These patients were randomly divided into intervention and control groups (30 patients in each group). The research instrument was a questionnaire on demographic data, self-efficacy questions for patients with diabetes and a researcher made questionnaire of diabetic foot care. Training programmes for foot ulcers care and prevention of new ulcers formation and other aspects of the disease were implemented during three months in the test group. Data were analysed using descriptive and analytic statistical tests (Mann-Whitney U, paired t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient) by SPSS version 18.0 software. RESULTS The results showed statistically significant difference (p<0.001) in the score of self-efficacy between intervention group (182.25) and control group (93.56), and the foot care score was 47.43 in the intervention group and 30.18 in control group after the intervention. The average scores of self-efficacy and foot ulcers care significantly increased in the intervention group after training programme (p<0.001). CONCLUSION The results showed that the implementation of training programme has been able to increase the self-efficacy of patients and the rate of their foot ulcers care and the prevention of new ulcers and effectively reduce the complications in diabetic patients.