Prevalence and risk factors for diabetes-related foot complications in Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes (TRIAD)

AimsThe objective was to describe the prevalence of diabetes-related foot complications in a managed care population and to identify the demographic and biological risk factors.MethodsWe assessed the period prevalence of foot complications on 6992 patients using ICD-9 diagnosis codes from health plan administrative data. Demographic and biological variables were ascertained from surveys and medical record reviews. We defined four mutually exclusive groups: any Charcot foot, DFU with debridement, amputation ± DFU and debridement, and no foot conditions.ResultsOverall, 55 (0.8%) patients had Charcot foot, 205 (2.9%) had DFU with debridement, and 101 (1.4%) had a lower-extremity amputation. There were 6631 patients with no prevalent foot conditions. Racial/ethnic minorities were less likely to have Charcot foot (OR = 0.21; 95% CI: 0.10, 0.46) or DFU (OR = 0.61; 95% CI: 0.44, 0.84) compared to non-Hispanic Whites, but there were no racial/ethnic differences in amputation. Histories of micro- or macrovascular disease were associated with a two- to four-fold increase in the odds of foot complications.ConclusionIn managed care patients with uniform access to health care, we found a relatively high prevalence of foot complications, but attenuation of the racial/ethnic differences of rates reported in the literature.