Evaluation of the impact of podiatrist care in the primary prevention of foot problems in diabetic subjects.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the influence of podiatrist activities on the outpatient care of diabetic patients in terms of knowledge of diabetic foot care, self-care, and minor foot problems.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

There were 733 patients, aged 10-79 years, identified from the national diabetes register. Patients without recent visits to a podiatrist and without an obvious need for foot care were randomized into a podiatric care group (education and primary prevention measures, n = 267) and a control group (written instructions only, n = 263). The patients were examined by an independent study podiatrist at baseline and after 1 year.

RESULTS

Patients in the podiatrist group had greater improvement in knowledge of diabetic foot care (P = 0.004) and self-care (P < 0.001) scores compared with control subjects. The prevalence of callosities in regions other than the calcaneal region decreased more (P = 0.009) in the podiatrist group (from 54.5 to 39.5%) than in the control group (from 51.3 to 48.2%), and the size of the callosities decreased more (P < 0.001) in the podiatrist group than in the control group. Reduction in the prevalence of callosities was associated with younger age (< 50 years).

CONCLUSIONS

Education and primary preventive measures provided individually by a podiatrist result in significant improvements in knowledge and foot self-care scores and in improvements in the prevalence of some minor foot problems. Long-term studies are needed to evaluate whether the intervention of podiatrists starting at an early phase would lead to a reduction in major foot problems.