Enhancing Diabetic Foot Education by Viewing Personal Plantar Pressures

In addition to the standard foot care education, personalized, computer-animated plantar pressure maps in both barefoot and in-shoe conditions were demonstrated once at baseline visit. The demonstration includes diabetic foot education on the topic of diabetic neuropathy and how barefoot walking can lead to skin breakdown and ulcer formation, which can lead to infection and eventual amputation. The education also highlights the high plantar pressures experienced by individuals while barefoot versus in-shoe and how proper footwear is necessary in conjunction with other standard self-foot care measures to prevent injury and complications.

At baseline, a trained staff individually reviewed and dispensed the following brochures: "Prevent diabetes problems: Keep your diabetes under control" (NIH Publication No. 07-4349) and "Prevent diabetes problems: Keep your feet and skin healthy" (NIH Publication No. 07-4282) along with a 1-page summary of each brochure. Also, a 1-page supplementary diabetic shoe wear educational material was reviewed and dispensed. "Keep your diabetes under control" stresses "sugar, blood pressure, and medication control, and nutrition and physical activity, and checking feet daily for cuts, blisters, sores, swelling, redness, or sore toenails." "Keep your skin and feet healthy" emphasizes the importance of checking feet daily, highlighting diabetic foot complications that can arise from neuropathy, poor circulation and dry skin, and the importance of supportive, protective, and accommodative shoewear and annual foot exams.