Polypharmacy is Associated with Diabetic Foot Ulcers in Type 2 Diabetes mellitus.

Objectives

This observational study aimed to investigate the relationship between polypharmacy and the existence of diabetic foot ulcers in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods

Patients with T2DM with and without diabetic foot ulcers who presented to the endocrinology outpatient clinic between August 2020 and November 2021 were involved in the study. Overall, five hundred and twelve patients with T2DM (293 patients with diabetic foot ulcer and 219 patients without diabetic foot ulcer) were included. The exclusion criteria were pregnancy, lactation, type 1 diabetes, patients under 18 years and over 65 years of age, and history of malignancy. The information of drugs administered, demographic and clinical data were obtained from the patient files. The Wagner score was used to evaluate the severity of ulcers.

Results

The comparison of the two groups revealed that patients with diabetic foot ulcers had significantly higher rates of diabetic retinopathy (p = 0.017). The patients with diabetic foot ulcers who had polypharmacy had significantly higher rates of hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, diabetic retinopathy, and complaints of diabetic neuropathy (P < 0.001, P < 0,001, p = 0.021 and P = 0.004, respectively). In the binary logistic regression analyses, polypharmacy was independently associated with diabetic foot ulcers in all models.

Conclusion

Polypharmacy should be seriously concerned in type 2 diabetes mellitus in patients with diabetic foot ulcers and polypharmacy was related to diabetic foot ulcers.