New research into diabetes care and management found that individuals with type 2 diabetes and foot ulcers showed more cognitive decline than diabetics without the foot condition.
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers decided to see if cognitive function was affected by the development of diabetic foot ulcers. For the study, researchers recruited 194 study participants between the ages of 45 and 75 years old. 99 patients had at least one diabetic foot ulcer, while 95 diabetics without foot ulcers made up the control group. Each person underwent a battery of neuropsychological tests that examined: General intelligence, short- and long-term memory, attention and concentration, psychomotor efficiency, reaction time, executive function, nonverbal IQ, visual-motor speed, coordination, capacity for learning, verbal production, semantic memory, and language.
Diabetic Foot Ulcer Study
After comparing the scores between groups, researchers uncovered that patients with diabetic foot ulcers showed significantly lower scores in all the tested fields compared to patients without foot ulcers.
Diabetics who had developed foot ulcers “remember less, have decreased ability to concentrate, and more difficulty with learning, less inhibition, slower cognitive and psychomotor responses, and less verbal fluency” than diabetics without the foot condition, the researchers wrote.
The research is beneficial because it can help doctors better treat diabetics who develop foot ulcers. Knowing that cognitive decline may be associated with foot ulcers can lead to more focus on cognitive therapy alongside ulcer treatment.
“We feel that it is important to screen the cognitive status of these patients regularly and to take cognitive abilities into consideration in treatment-planning recommendations and follow-up,” researchers wrote.
Researchers said the test didn’t prove that foot ulcers caused cognitive decline, only that there was a correlation between foot ulcer development and lower cognitive scores. The team of researchers hope to conduct subsequent studies to determine causation and to pinpoint when cognitive function begins to taper off when a foot ulcer develops.
The team concluded by saying that the study findings “highlight the importance of focusing on cognitive functioning, a less-studied area in diabetic foot research.
So if you want to keep your mind sharp, pay attention to your feet. For more information on ways to protect your diabetic feet, check out this webpage we created on the caring for your diabetic feet!