The quality of life in men and women with diabetic foot ulcer in selected hospitals of Tehran universities

Introduction:Diabetic foot ulcer is one of the important problems related to diabetes which affects the quality of life of the patients. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life of men and women with diabetic foot ulcer.Material and Methods:This cross-sectional study aimed to study the quality of life of 72 men and 48 women with diabetic foot ulcer using convenience sampling method. The data gathering instrument was diabetic foot scale questionnaire which is used for evaluation of the quality of life of the patients with diabetic foot ulcer. The data were analyzed through descriptive and analytic statistic tests using SPSS software.Results:Of 120 patients with diabetic foot ulcer participating in this study, 60% were men and 40% were women with the mean age of 54.23(±12) years. The scores obtained in quality of life domains showed that friendship (p=0.024), following the treatment (0.013) and financial status (p=0.032) had significant difference between men and women. A significant relationship was also found between age and quality of life in both genders (p=0.007). Marriage showed a significant relationship with quality of life in men (p=0.014) and women (p=0.002). The correlation between quality of life and economic status was significant only in men (p=0.010) and its association with employment status was only significant in women (p=0.001). Education level and body mass index had no significant relationship with quality of life in any of the genders.Conclusion:In most domains, the effect of diabetic foot ulcer on quality of life was more in women than men.