Did you know that each day in Australia, an estimated 510,000 people are living with diabetes-related foot disease? Diabetes-related foot disease has been described in the Medical Journal of Australia as the least known major health problem. In fact, DFD is the largest cause of the national hospitalisation, amputation and disability burdens in people living with diabetes in Australia.
For Diabetes Feet Day, we’re making feet the national focus! Together, we can make a difference to educate, advocate and spread awareness about diabetes-related feet health and disease!
So check out how you can get ready and get involved!
Foot care is vital for people with diabetes and fortunately, many foot problems are preventable. With daily foot checks and recommended lifestyle changes, many people with diabetes are able to prevent foot ulcers and their more serious complications, such as amputation. By introducing simple steps into your daily routine, the risk of foot problems can reduce significantly. So...how well do you know your feet?
Download our updated diabetes feet health passport that walks you through the daily steps to help take care of your valuable feet.
Here at Diabetes Feet Australia, we provide insightful and practical education for health professionals, with the goal to improve feet health outcomes for people living with diabetes. So, we invite you to learn and learn from our two podcast series, which focus on not just the foot, but everything that goes along with it.
Diabetes Feet Australia and health professionals across the nation have recognised we need to support better foot health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, particularly those living in rural and remote communities.
An essential part of this is us listening to and developing an understanding of the lived experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples living with diabetes-related foot disease. In our DFYarn Podcast series, our aim is to listen and learn about the lived experiences of diabetes feet health and disease in our First Nations Communities, in health settings, and the impact more broadly.
New research on diabetes feet health and disease is published almost daily, and in the last 3 years, over 250 publications featuring our very own Australian DFD researchers have been published globally. In contrast though, currently DFD receives less than 0.2% of all Australian diabetes research funding.
In our DF Podcast Research series, we're providing a national platform to showcase both Australian DFD research and researchers. So, join us for our relaxed interview series where we chat directly to leading researchers, and learn about them, their research, and the latest in diabetes feet health & disease.
Supporting health professionals, researchers and those at-risk of and living with diabetes-related foot disease.
In 2017, we released the 2018-2022 National Strategy for diabetes-related foot disease with the aim to ensure that all people living with DFD have access to and receive safe quality evidence-based care when and where they need it, and that future investments in research and development would continue to strive to improve their care delivery and health outcomes over time.
With the current national strategy at its conclusion, the DFA team has been busy reviewing what we have achieved as a nation over the last six years, and to determine the new priorities and recommendations to help lead the nation in tackling diabetes feet health and disease. The next national strategy for diabetes-related foot health & disease is now in its final development stages with the draft strategy releasing for public consultation in November 2024.
So...get ready as we'll be inviting you to have your say in helping to guide our national diabetes-related feet health and disease priorities.
Diabetes-related foot disease is a leading cause of morbidity, mortality and healthcare cost burdens in Australia. Studies show these burdens can be considerably reduced when implementing guideline-based DFD care.
We have developed and released new Australian DFD Guidelines for the first time in a decade, giving health professionals multidisciplinary best practice standards of care for the provision of DFD care within Australia with the PDF paper versions of the guidelines available to download below.
The Australian DFD Guidelines are available on a digital and interactive platform. A free one-stop-shop for accessing the full six guidelines that also provides ten digital decision-making pathways to assist busy health professionals to easily access online and interactive evidence-based guideline information at a touch or click of a button!
You can also access the paper guidelines and companion toolkit "Diabetes & Feet" using the below links.
Learn from global DFD experts as we tackle the latest in DFD clinical practice and research!
In 2021, we asked Australian stakeholders to help us determine the national Top 10 diabetes-related foot health and disease research priorities, and the findings from this study identified national stakeholder-agreed priority research questions for DFD for the first time. In our 2023 DFA webinar series, we've been tackling the top categories identified in the National Top 10 research questions from a research and clinical perspective. All six insightful and future focused webinars are now available to watch on demand. Once you have registered and logged in - head over to the 'On Demand' tab.
Learn from global DFD experts as we tackle the latest in DFD clinical practice and research!
In 2021, we asked Australian stakeholders to help us determine the national Top 10 diabetes-related foot health and disease research priorities, and the findings from this study identified national stakeholder-agreed priority research questions for DFD for the first time. In our 2023 DFA webinar series, we've been tackling the top categories identified in the National Top 10 research questions from a research and clinical perspective. All six insightful and future focused webinars are now available to watch on demand. Once you have registered and logged in - head over to the 'On Demand' tab.