Diabetes, Visual Impairment
Conditions
Keywords
diabetes, visual impairment, foot care, diabetes self-management education
Brief summary
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).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALDSME with Nonvisual Foot Examination
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.
BEHAVIORALDSME with Usual Foot Examination Instruction
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.
Sponsors
Case Western Reserve University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* over age 18 * diagnosed with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes * stated they had visual impairment
Exclusion criteria
* unable to pass a brief decisional capacity test * had a score above 80 on the near vision scale of the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire * had bilateral lower extremity amputations * by self-report were unable to sense light touch on two or more fingers or either hand
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency of foot examination at home | 6 months | number of times that the enrolled participant or someone else examined the person's feet at home during the study period |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| New foot problems discovered at home | 6 months | 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 |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Total new foot problems | 6 months | total number of foot problems documented by the podiatrist at podiatry visit |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed