Because people who have both diabetes and visual impairment have high risk for foot problems, prevention of ulcers and amputation is a high priority. Usual care in diabetes self-management education (DSME) is to teach them to seek sighted assistance for regular foot examination, yet clinical experience suggests that this advice is seldom heeded. One possible solution is to teach use of the nonvisual senses of touch and smell for a systematic, thorough foot self-examination. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the efficacy, acceptability, and feasibility of nonvisual foot examination with usual care (examination of the visually impaired person's feet by a sighted family member or friend).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
57
Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) with Nonvisual Foot Examination included comprehensive DSME taught by Certified Diabetes Educators that included instruction in nonvisual self-examination of feet using the senses of touch and smell.
DSME with usual foot examination instruction was comprehensive diabetes self management education taught by Certified Diabetes Educators that included usual care instructions for examination for feet at home by visually impaired persons, i.e., to have a sighted person check the feet regularly.
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Frequency of foot examination at home
number of times that the enrolled participant or someone else examined the person's feet at home during the study period
Time frame: 6 months
New foot problems discovered at home
total number of new foot problems reported to podiatrists as having been discovered at home by the participant or someone else examining the person's feet
Time frame: 6 months
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