Therapeutic shoes can prevent diabetic foot reulcerations but their use is complicated by the fact that shoes have psychological and social meanings, which is believed to put a larger burden on women than men.

The aim was to compare attitudes and attributes of women and men using therapeutic shoes for diabetic foot complications.

A questionnaire was posted to 1230 people with diabetes who had been fitted with therapeutic shoes.

Women’s and men’s answers were compared using t-tests, Mann–Whitney U tests and chi-square tests with Fischer’s exact tests. P-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.