Foot Care Self-Management in Non-Diabetic Older Adults: A Pilot Controlled Trial.

This was a pilot with 32 consented participants, so it was not designed to prove that the intervention caused changes. Participants were mostly white, female, low-income senior-center members with good baseline foot health, and no Black/African American individuals participated, so the findings may not apply to more diverse or less healthy older adults. Groups differed at baseline: more intervention participants had hypertension, and the true control group was almost eight years younger than the intervention group. The principal investigator was not blinded to group assignment and also rated foot health, which can bias observer-reported outcomes. High baseline knowledge, self-efficacy and behaviors, and very low pain, left little room to show improvement. The knowledge questionnaire may have taught control participants because they completed it repeatedly, and its true-false format may encourage yes answers. The foot care behavior questionnaire used UK terms that needed clarification for US participants. The foot health score has limited psychometric information and needs further validation. The paper reports attrition percentages but does not clearly state the final analysed count for each subgroup.

The article is marked as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support. The supplied text gives no author conflict-of-interest declaration.

Do not conclude that the intervention improves foot pain, foot health or prevents foot problems. The paper says a larger study is needed to determine clinically or statistically significant effects, and participants already had high knowledge and good foot health. The principal investigator was not blinded and also rated foot health.