Educational Alternatives, Volume 17, 2019

Abstract: One of the objectives of a comprehensive specialized education for diabetics is to prevent the development of diabetic foot syndrome. All the diabetics, including old people, should take the preventive education on comprehensive foot care. Awareness and adherence to appropriate foot care, which also includes choice of high-quality prophylactic footwear, help to prevent the development of the above-mentioned syndrome. To find out the effect of education on the knowledge of prophylactic footwear and on the quality of the shoes worn for seniors with diabetes mellitus. The sample consisted of 278 seniors with diabetes mellitus, 134 (48.0 %) men and 144 (52.0 %) women monitored in outpatients' departments of diabetes and general practitioners' surgeries. Data collection was carried out through guided structured interview and completed with direct non-standardized observation. The average number of completed respondents' education sessions was 0.85 education session, half of them attended more than one education session. Women were shown to remember, on average, more criteria characterizing appropriate prophylactic footwear (1.86 criteria) compared to men (1.2 criteria) after an education session, after two education sessions, the gender difference was eliminated (on average, women and men remembered 3.19 and 3.22 criteria, respectively). Existing shoes showed the following parameters: closed shoe style (95.0 %), solid sole (80.0 %), Velcro and lacing fastening (71.0 %). The use of recommended prophylactic footwear was influenced by the number of criteria that seniors remembered within the provided education session. The appropriate shoes, according to educational recommendations, were worn by respondents who completed more education sessions.