Long-term complications of diabetes develop gradually. The longer you have diabetes — and the less controlled your blood sugar — the higher the risk of complications. With the growing number of people living with diabetes worldwide, healthcare professionals are encouraged to pay attention to the major complications of diabetes in their daily practice. It is therefore IDF’s vision is to develop a series clinical practice recommendations for health care professionals on specific topics, with the aim of creating clinical guidelines in an easily digestible and user-friendly format, adaptable to any country, region or health setting.

Diabetic foot disease, mainly due to neuropathy, peripheral arterial disease, and/or infection, often leads to ulceration and possible subsequent limb amputation. It is one of the most costly complications of diabetes, and can result in an important economic, social, and public health burden; especially in low-income communities, if there is neither an appropriate educational programme, nor adequate and suitable footwear.

The IDF Clinical Practice Recommendations on the Diabetic Foot are simplified, easy to digest guidelines to prioritize health care practitioner's early intervention of the diabetic foot with a sense of urgency through education. The main aims of the guidelines are to promote early detection and intervention; provide the criteria for time- adequate referral to a second or third level centers and serve as a tool to educate people with diabetes about the importance of prevention of this pathology.

They are also designed to provide clinicians with practice recommendations based on published evidence, which have been validated through reviews and field-testing by experienced diabetic foot care clinicians. They not only target specialized diabetic foot health practitioners, but all health professionals, including diabetes educators and nurses, and in some circumstances, people with diabetes and their families.