Validated 60-Second General Foot Screen: A Pilot Trial and Guide to Diagnoses and Treatment.

Abstract

To provide information on a 60-second General Foot Screen to assist in the prevention and/or identification and management of common foot problems. This continuing education activity is intended for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses with an interest in skin and wound care. After participating in this educational activity, the participant should be better able to:1. Use the 60-second General Foot Screen to assist healthcare professionals in the recognition of common foot problems.2. Identify risk factors, causes, and treatment of selected foot problems. Foot health is important to overall patient health. Early diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, neuropathy, fungal foot infections, foot deformity, and vascular disease/lower leg edema can improve patient quality of life. One way to achieve this is effective screening. To this end, researchers piloted a validated 10-item screening tool to assess foot health on 120 patients; 74.17% had at least one positive abnormality, demonstrating the critical importance of these early findings. Only 25.83% of individuals had completely low-risk feet. This easy-to-use tool can assist healthcare professionals in the recognition and treatment of common foot problems. The article also outlines the early signs of disease by screening item and provides a guide to treatment to enable effective prevention and quality care.