what-when-how
In Depth Tutorials and Information
C h a p t e r
8
Chapter contents
The relationship
between footwear
and the vulnerable
foot
Introduction 121
Footwear and rheumatoid
arthritis 123
Footwear for patients with
diabetes 123
Footwear for the older
person 130
Summary 132
Review questions 132
Reflection 132
Self-assessed questions 133
References 133
Further reading 135
Introduction
With the growing foot, well fitting, well designed
footwear should be seen as an investment for
future good foot health and function, and com-
monly this happens, however, it is not only
children who benefit from good footwear. In the
adult, inappropriate footwear can impact on
mobility, general health, independence and life-
style; for example, in patients with high-risk
foot disease and in the elderly, for whom
appropriate footwear should be advised or
provided with the aim of preventing limb- and
life-threatening morbidity, falls and related
problems such as fractures, loss of mobility
and loss of independence.
For both the practitioner and the patient,
footwear is often considered the most prob-
lematic aspect of managing foot pain, deform-
ity and the risk of ulceration, in relation to the
footwear style, its acceptability and the it, with
or without foot orthoses. The appropriate it for
patients with diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis
(RA), for example, is often difficult to achieve in
retail footwear. A study by
Chantelau and Gede
(2002)
found that out of 568 patients, over
two-thirds had feet that were considerably
