New Delhi: Divorced men are at the highest risk among people with diabetes of having some or all of their feet and legs amputated because of the disease, research has found. People with diabetes who are divorced are two-thirds (67%) more likely to have to undergo a lower limb amputation than those who are married. Men are at 57% greater risk than women of that fate.
The trends emerged from research conducted among 66,569 people with diabetes in Sweden, findings from which will be presented at a conference of specialists in the disease. The need for lower limb amputation is a serious but common side-effect of diabetes and a risk run by people with the type 1 and type 2 forms of the disease. On average, 184 people a week in England have some part of a lower limb removed surgically to stop the infection from spreading and killing them, The Guardian reported.
Researchers who conducted the study acknowledged that they couldn’t definitively determine the exact reasons why divorced individuals of both genders faced a significantly higher risk of lower limb amputation compared to married people. However, they put forth the speculation that this heightened risk might be linked to alterations in self-care and dietary habits that tend to emerge when individuals experience divorce and subsequently find themselves more inclined to live alone. “Specifically with men, this is often related to more social isolation, with a secondary effect of low physical activity,” the report added.
