How do Australian podiatrists manage patients with diabetes? The Australian diabetic foot management survey
Affiliation
Department of Prosthetics, Orthotics, & Podiatry, Princess Alexandra HospitalSchool of Population Health, The University of Queensland
Allied Health Research Collaborative, Metro North Hospital & Health Service, Queensland Health
School of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology
Department of Diabetes & Endocrinology, Princess Alexandra Hospital
School of Medicine, The University of Queensland
Department of Surgery, Southern Arizona Limb Salavage Alliance (SALSA), University of Arizona College of Medicine
Issue Date
2015
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
BioMed CentralCitation
Quinton et al. Journal of Foot and Ankle Research (2015) 8:16 DOI 10.1186/s13047-015-0072-yRights
© 2015 Quinton et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).Collection Information
This item is part of the UA Faculty Publications collection. For more information this item or other items in the UA Campus Repository, contact the University of Arizona Libraries at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Diabetic foot complications are the leading cause of lower extremity amputation and diabetes-related hospitalisation in Australia. Studies demonstrate significant reductions in amputations and hospitalisation when health professionals implement best practice management. Whilst other nations have surveyed health professionals on specific diabetic foot management, to the best of the authors' knowledge this appears not to have occurred in Australia. The primary aim of this study was to examine Australian podiatrists' diabetic foot management compared with best practice recommendations by the Australian National Health Medical Research Council. METHODS: A 36-item Australian Diabetic Foot Management survey, employing seven-point Likert scales (0 = Never; 7 = Always) to measure multiple aspects of best practice diabetic foot management was developed. The survey was briefly tested for face and content validity. The survey was electronically distributed to Australian podiatrists via professional associations. Demographics including sex, years treating patients with diabetes, employment-sector and patient numbers were also collected. Chi-squared and Mann Whitney U tests were used to test differences between sub-groups. RESULTS: Three hundred and eleven podiatrists responded; 222 (71%) were female, 158 (51%) from the public sector and 11-15 years median experience. Participants reported treating a median of 21-30 diabetes patients each week, including 1-5 with foot ulcers. Overall, participants registered median scores of at least "very often" (>6) in their use of most items covering best practice diabetic foot management. Notable exceptions were: "never" (1 (1 - 3)) using total contact casting, "sometimes" (4 (2 - 5)) performing an ankle brachial index, "sometimes" (4 (1 - 6)) using University of Texas Wound Classification System, and "sometimes" (4 (3 - 6) referring to specialist multi-disciplinary foot teams. Public sector podiatrists reported higher use or access on all those items compared to private sector podiatrists (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first baseline information on Australian podiatrists' adherence to best practice diabetic foot guidelines. It appears podiatrists manage large caseloads of people with diabetes and are generally implementing best practice guidelines recommendations with some notable exceptions. Further studies are required to identify barriers to implementing these recommendations to ensure all Australians with diabetes have access to best practice care to prevent amputations.EISSN
1757-1146PubMed ID
25908944PubMed Central ID
PMC4407475Version
Final published versionAdditional Links
http://www.jfootankleres.com/content/8/1/16ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1186/s13047-015-0072-y [doi]
Scopus Count
Collections
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2015 Quinton et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).
Related articles
- How does the clinical practice of Aotearoa New Zealand podiatrists align with international guidelines for the prevention of diabetes-related foot disease? A cross-sectional survey.
- Authors: Jepson H, Lazzarini PA, Garrett M, Carroll MR
- Issue date: 2023 Aug 22
- Factors influencing Australian podiatrists' behavioural intentions to adopt a smart insole into clinical practice: a mixed methods study.
- Authors: Macdonald EM, Perrin BM, Kingsley MIC
- Issue date: 2020 Jun 1
- Determining confidence and anxiety of Australian community podiatrists in managing foot ulceration: A cross-sectional study.
- Authors: Anning N, Stokes-Parish J, Banwell H, Causby R, Walsh A, Tehan P
- Issue date: 2024 Sep
- Non-surgical treatment of hallux valgus: a current practice survey of Australian podiatrists.
- Authors: Hurn SE, Vicenzino BT, Smith MD
- Issue date: 2016
- The research capacity and culture of Australian podiatrists.
- Authors: Williams CM, Lazzarini PA
- Issue date: 2015