Investigating plantar pressure measurements in diabetes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating plantar pressure measurements and their potential role in a local diabetes foot screening pathway.
IRAS ID
260754
Contact name
Sandra MacRury
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of the Highlands and Islands
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 5 days
Research summary
People with diabetes are at increased risk of foot complications due to peripheral neuropathy and/or peripheral arterial disease. 5.7% of people with Type 1 diabetes and 3.9% of those with Type 2 in NHS Highland have a record of having had a foot ulcer.
Management of foot problems related to diabetes presents significant financial cost to the NHS through primary and community care, outpatient costs, inpatient bed occupancy and prolonged hospital stays. It has been estimated that £650 million is spent by the NHS on foot ulcers and amputations per year.
In an effort to detect problems early and prevent foot ulceration, foot care screening programmes for people with diabetes are common practice. It is recommended that people are screened at diagnosis and annually thereafter by examining for neuropathy using a 10g monofilament, peripheral pulses and observing for ulceration, callus or deformity.
A person is then assigned a low, moderate, high or active risk category allowing referral of appropriate people for multidisciplinary foot care or protection.
This study aims to explore whether two technological devices used to measure plantar pressures could act as a more accurate, standardised screening method for foot complications in diabetes. Potentially, the plantar pressure measurements could then be used in the production of individualised off loading insoles or footwear.
The first device, Moticon’s smart insoles, consist of a pressure sensing layer with 13 sensors and an embedded transmitter system which record and analyse a person’s plantar and weight bearing pressures when worn in their shoes.
The second device, Footscan, is a 1048mm x 418mm x 12 mm platform with 8192 sensors designed to be placed on the floor to provide static or dynamic plantar pressure data as the person stands on or walks across the plate. A study on healthy people showed the Footscan platform has shown good repeatability and it is therefore possible to use it in assessment of plantar pressure distribution.
Both of these devices produce pressure measurements which can be viewed on a laptop, giving potential to link up with the existing NHS diabetes database.
So far, these devices have been used by professionals in the fields of sports and biomechanics. In order to identify whether there is a role in foot screening in diabetes, we must test the plantar pressures of healthy people, people with diabetes and those with known diabetic foot complications to first of all identify normal values and then the values which would indicate those with feet at risk of ulceration.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
19/WS/0059
Date of REC Opinion
24 Apr 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion