Patient attitudes to diabetic foot ulcers have 'significant effect' on survival

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uon-pat042516.php

Public Release: 25-Apr-2016
Patient attitudes to diabetic foot ulcers have 'significant effect' on survival
University of Nottingham

New research by health psychologists has shown that the beliefs and expectations of people with diabetic foot ulcers about their illness have a significant independent effect on their survival.

The study was led by researchers at The University of Nottingham. It set out to expand on an area of previous research which, in some studies, linked depression to poorer clinical outcomes for diabetic ulcer patients.

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People with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are susceptible to leg and foot ulcers because of nerve damage and the narrowing of arteries to the feet and lower leg. Small injuries to the foot can fail to heal and turn into ulcers which can become infected and hard to treat, sometimes leading to amputation and even death.

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"Our analysis examined whether patients' beliefs about their ulcer predicted survival, after taking into account the effects of depression and other clinical factors that might be expected to influence mortality. We found that, although depression was not a significant predictor, patients who believed their ulcers were associated with greater symptoms died more quickly. These patients also believed that their ulcers would have more serious consequences for them, believed they would last a long time, found them distressing and believed they had little control over them. This constellation of beliefs appears to have been common in people who died more quickly in this study."
[Maybe these beliefs caused them to take less action to treat the ulcers and reduce their occurrence.]

Although this study is limited by the modest number of participants and the observational design, the findings suggest that negative beliefs about one's illness, alongside other clinical factors, may influence survival in people with diabetic foot ulcers.

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