Risk assessment tools for diabetic foot complications: implications for nursing assessment and clinical decision-making – a scoping review

Diabetic foot is a severe chronic complication of diabetes that often leads to ulcers, infections, and amputations, resulting in substantial healthcare burden and reduced quality of life. Early risk identification and stratified management are key to preventing adverse outcomes, and risk assessment is one of the earliest and most actionable components of nursing practice. Multiple diabetic foot risk assessment tools and classification systems (e.g., Wagner, University of Texas, PEDIS, SINBAD, and IWGDF) are used in clinical settings; however, they vary widely in assessment dimensions, target populations, clinical purposes, and nursing involvement. Evidence regarding these tools is dispersed across disciplines, and a nursing-oriented synthesis is lacking. This review aims to systematically map and synthesize existing evidence on diabetic foot risk assessment tools to inform nursing assessment and clinical decision-making.