ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Geriatric Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1584949
This article is part of the Research TopicChallenges and Innovations in Healthcare Management and Long-Term Care for an Aging SocietyView all 19 articles
The relationship between at-risk foot and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among the population with diabetes
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
- 2The Changqing District People's Hospital, Jinan, China
- 3Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Diabetic foot (DF) is a common complication among people with diabetes, typically caused by peripheral neuropathy (PN) and/or peripheral arterial disease (PAD) of the lower limbs. The existing research mainly focuses on cases of diabetic foot ulcers, while the relationship between at-risk foot and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the general U.S. population remains unclear.This study utilized data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 to conduct a cohort study. At-risk foot are defined as those in diabetic people who have concurrent PAD and/or PN, and without the presence of chronic ulcers in the lower extremities.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Multivariable Cox regression models were used to analyze the association between at-risk foot and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, with subgroup analyses conducted.A total of 946 participants were included in the study, of which 301 had at-risk foot. The median follow-up time was 190 months. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that the all-cause mortality (HR: 2.050, 95% CI: 1.524, 2.758) and cardiovascular mortality (HR: 2.494, 95% CI:1.809, 3.438) in at-risk foot people were significantly higher than in those without at-risk foot.Additionally, people with ischemic at-risk foot had a higher risk of mortality compared to those with non-ischemic neuropathic at-risk foot.Patients with at-risk foot in the diabetic population are significantly associated with increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Early diagnosis and intervention of PAD and PN in diabetes people are crucial for reducing mortality risk.
Keywords: Diabetic Foot, at-risk foot, Peripheral Arterial Disease, peripheral neuropathy, Mortality
Received: 18 Apr 2025; Accepted: 11 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Dong, Li, Chu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chu Chu, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
Bin Wang, Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, 250001, Shandong Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.