Search Results
Self-assessment of Foot Health
Requirements, Issues, Practicalities, and Challenges
If self-referent instruments about people’s health are to be useful in clinical and research settings, those instruments must be developed according to well-established processes and principles of measurement. We outline the main processes that should occur in the development of self-referent measuring instruments in general, with a focus, for illustrative purposes, on those intended to assess foot health. Requirements and issues concerning different forms of reliability and validity receive the most attention. In particular, problems associated with indices of test-retest reliability, inter-item homogeneity, and construct validity are identified and discussed. Practicalities concerning administration and scoring are also considered. A list of questions is provided for prospective users to assess the characteristics and quality of self-referent instruments. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 99(5): 460–471, 2009)
Background: Older people have multiple foot health problems; therefore, nursing staff need to pay attention to the foot care of older people, especially in long-term care and nursing homes. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge of nursing staff (n = 16) regarding foot care, their foot-care activities, and the health of residents’ (n = 43) feet in a nursing home before and after an intervention (educational program).
Methods: Nursing staff in a nursing home received a foot-care educational program that consisted of lectures and demonstrations.
Results: After the intervention, nursing staff knowledge of foot care and foot-care activities had partially improved, which was mainly seen in residents’ skin health.
Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that an educational program can change nursing staff knowledge of foot care and their foot-care activities. However, the educational program tested in this study needs further development. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 101(2): 159–166, 2011)
The aim of this study was to apply the principles of content, criterion, and construct validation to a new questionnaire specifically designed to measure foot-health status. One hundred eleven subjects completed two different questionnaires designed to measure foot health (the new Foot Health Status Questionnaire and the previously validated Foot Function Index) and underwent a clinical examination in order to provide data for a second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Presented herein is a psychometrically evaluated questionnaire that contains 13 items covering foot pain, foot function, footwear, and general foot health. The tool demonstrates a high degree of content, criterion, and construct validity and test-retest reliability.
Foot Health Service Provision by the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Do Major Podiatric Medical Interventions Reduce the Number of Maintenance Treatments?
Background: In Australia, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs provides podiatric medical services, including nail surgery and the provision of footwear and orthoses, for war veterans and their dependents. We sought to evaluate whether the provision of these interventions reduces the number of ongoing maintenance treatments.
Methods: We used the database of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to document the number of major podiatric medical interventions (footwear, foot orthoses, nail surgery, and combinations of these interventions) for 1996–1997. The number of maintenance podiatric medical treatments provided in the 2 years before (1994–1996) and 2 years after (1997–1999) these interventions was then compared with a control group that did not receive any major interventions.
Results: Compared with the number of treatments in the 2 years before the interventions, in the subsequent 2 years there was a significant increase in the mean ± SD number of maintenance treatments after receiving footwear only (10.4 ± 5.8 versus 12.3 ± 5.0), foot orthoses only (9.4 ± 5.3 versus 12.2 ± 4.6), nail surgery only (10.2 ± 5.8 versus 13.2 ± 4.4), and footwear plus foot orthoses (9.3 ± 6.1 versus 13.3 ± 5.5). In the control group, the mean number of treatments in 1994–1996 and 1997–1999 was 10.8 and 11.8, respectively.
Conclusions: Provision of major podiatric medical interventions did not reduce the number of ongoing maintenance treatments received by veterans. However, owing to the inherent limitations of claims data, it is difficult to determine whether this finding is due to the limited efficacy of the interventions or to the policy structure of podiatric medical service provision in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 97(6): 469–474, 2007)
