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Diabetes-related foot ulcers pose substantial health risks globally, yet the biomechanical intricacies underlying their development remain incompletely understood. This study aimed to evaluate lower limb gait joint coordination variability in individuals with diabetes-related foot ulcers compared to those with diabetes (without diabetes-related foot ulcers) and healthy controls. A total of 99 participants (diabetes-related foot ulcers cases – 16, Diabetes controls – 50, Health controls – 33) compared three self-paced walking trials. Vector coding, a technique quantifying movement coordination, was employed, analysing hip-knee, knee-ankle, and hip-angle joint couplings in the sagittal plane. No significant differences in coordination variability were found among the groups. However, distinct coupling pattern frequencies emerged, with diabetes-related foot ulcers cases exhibiting unique anti-phase hip and ankle coupling frequency counts compared to healthy controls. These findings challenge conventional understandings of diabetes-related foot ulcers biomechanics and underscore the complexity of gait in this population. • No significant gait coordination variability differences were found across diabetes and healthy groups. • Distinct anti-phase hip and ankle movements seen in foot ulcers, unlike healthy controls. • Findings challenge traditional views of foot ulcer biomechanics, highlighting gait complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To determine trends in the incidence of hospitalizations and amputations for diabetes-related foot disease (DFD) in Australia.Methods: We included 70,766 people with type 1, and 1,087,706 with type 2 diabetes from the Australian diabetes registry from 2010 to 2019, linked to hospital admissions databases. Trends in age-adjusted incidence were summarized as annual percent changes (APC).Results: In people with type 1 diabetes, total DFD hospitalizations increased from 20.8 to 30.5 per 1,000 person-years between 2010 and 2019 (APC: 5.1% (95% CI: 3.5, 6.8)), including increases for ulceration (13.3% (2.9, 24.7)), osteomyelitis (5.6% (2.7, 8.7)), peripheral arterial disease (7.7% (3.7, 11.9)), and neuropathy (8.7% (5.5, 12.0)). In people with type 2 diabetes, DFD hospitalizations changed from 18.6 to 24.8 per 1,000 person-years between 2010 and 2019 (APC: 4.5% (3.6, 5.4); 2012-2019), including increases for ulceration (8.7% (4.0, 13.7)), cellulitis (5.4% (3.7, 7.0)), osteomyelitis (6.7% (5.7, 7.7)), and neuropathy (6.9% (5.2, 8.5)). Amputations were stable in type 1, whereas in type 2, above knee amputations decreased (-6.0% (-9.1, -2.7). Adjustment for diabetes duration attenuated the magnitude of most increases, but many remained significant.Conclusions: DFD hospitalizations increased markedly in Australia, mainly driven by ulceration and neuropathy, highlighting the importance of managing DFD to prevent hospitalizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]