SOCIOLOGICAL EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT OF DIABETIC FOOT PATIENTS

Abstract

Objectives: In this study, the problems, attitudes and behaviors of diabetic foot patients were
examined and evaluated in terms of sociology and management science. Diabetic foot disease is a
serious chronic disease with a difficult life-supply process for sick individuals and a high cost for
the family and society. The financial burden of these costs on the national health system and the
family of the individual is quite high. It has been observed that there is no subjective study in the
examination of national and international resources on the management of these costs. One of the
most frightening complications in diabetic foot disease is amputation.
Method: Diabetic foot diseases cause many negativities in the life processes of sick individuals and
reduce the individual's potential to adapt to social and cultural life. This process will be a chaotic
life cycle for the patient and his family. This situation, the thought of a tragic future, puts him and
his family in a spiral of economic and psychological problems. The patient is exposed to
psychological, pathological and sociological problems through this process. It is possible to state
that there are universal principles of health management for ethnic and cultural formations living in
the world (Kızılçelik, 1996:69). In this context, sociology of health examines people's attitudes and
behaviors against diseases, socio-cultural and economic reasons of patients. It deals with the social
class relations with the disease, demographic structure, many factors such as poverty, divorce,
unemployment and death, and the relations with the relatives of the patients (Kızılçelik, 1996:70).
Result: Sociology explores the meanings and causes behind human behavior. Health sociology, on
the other hand, analyzes the relationship between the socio-cultural life of people and the disease,
the response to diseases and health policies. The concepts of illness and health are closely related to
the society in which people live. In this study, it was aimed to bring the life cycle of diabetic foot
patients to a livable state and to increase their quality of life. Preventive health practices and
developments in public health are important in the development of health sociology. The solution of
the problems of diabetic foot diseases should be considered together within the framework of
sociology and management science.