Assessing wear time and perceptions of wearing an ankle foot orthosis in patients with peripheral artery disease.
Danae Dinkel, Mahdi Hassan, John P Rech and 4 others
PMID 35488854WHAT IT FOUND
Most participants with PAD wore their ankle orthoses about five days a week for eight hours.
They reported improved walking distance but faced barriers at home, on stairs, and while driving. Do not assume high adherence or efficacy from this small pilot.
Key findings
01Objective accelerometer data showed participants wore the ankle foot orthosis for an average of 5 days per week and 8 hours per day.
02Almost all participants reported positive effects on walking, with 78.6% noting they could walk longer distances, but barriers were common.
03The most frequent barrier was difficulty wearing the device for daily activities around the home (78.6%), followed by challenges with stairs (64.3%) and driving (42.9%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study had a high dropout rate (over 60%), resulting in a small final sample of 14 participants, which limits the generalizability of the findings. The population was exclusively male and primarily non-Hispanic White, recruited from a Veterans Affairs medical center, so results may not apply to women or other racial/ethnic groups. Wear time was measured only for two 7-day periods, which may not accurately reflect long-term adherence patterns. Walking distance improvements were based on self-report and qualitative interviews, not objective functional tests. The accelerometer protocol for AFO wear time had not been previously validated.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (Extramural) and the U.S. Government (Non-P.H.S.). No specific commercial conflicts of interest were declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the perceived walking benefits as evidence of objective efficacy or high long-term adherence. The study was a small pilot with a high dropout rate, and improvements in walking distance were self-reported rather than objectively measured.