Footcare advice: what do we tell our patients and what should we tell them?

The objectives of this study were to investigate the extent of agreement on advice about footcare in educational leaflets intended for people with diabetes, and to evaluate the extent of agreement among healthcare professionals on what footcare advice should be given to people with diabetes. Eight footcare leaflets were examined in a cross‐sectional questionnaire study, conducted at a diabetic footcare conference in the UK, using defined criteria for comprehensibility and readability, presentation and content. Ninety one randomly selected delegates (46 chiropodists, 30 nurses, 15 doctors) took part.

Only two of the eight leaflets were found to be suitable for partially‐sighted readers. The standard of presentation was ideal in only one, and unacceptable in three leaflets. Five leaflets contained one or more contentious statements, six gave advice which was imprecise, and six contained one or more major omissions. There were 13 statements about footcare on which there was agreement among 75% or more of the delegates, and 12 statements on which agreement was less than 75%. Healthcare professionals should agree on the advice which is to be given to their patients and they should improve the quality of the educational leaflets which they provide for patients.