Objective To assess the effectiveness of intensive versus routine education on diabetes mellitus for preventing diabetic foot ulcer. Methods We electronically searched CENTRAL (Issue 1, 2013), PubMed (1978-2013), EMbase (1978-2013), VIP (1989-2013) and WanFang Data (1980-2013), hand-searched correlated proceedings and retrieved the references of included studies, for the randomized controlled trials on intensive versus routine education on diabetes mellitus for preventing diabetic foot ulcer all over the world. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software. Results Twelve trials involving 1 841 patients were finally included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: a) the incidence of diabetic foot ulcer in the intensive education group was lower than the routine group, with a significant difference (RR=0.51, 95%CI 0.30 to 0.84, P=0.008); b) two groups were alike in the amputation rate, with no significant difference (OR=0.54, 95%CI 0.17 to 1.67, P=0.28); and c) the score of knowledge on diabetes mellitus was higher in the intensive education group than in the routine education group, with a significant difference (MD=7.32, 95%CI 3.57 to 11.06, P=0.000 1). Conclusion Current evidence shows that: compared with routine education, intensive education could reduce the incidence of diabetic foot ulcer effectively. However, the above conclusion should be verified by conducting more high quality studies.
