Patients’ experiences of lupus related foot problems : a qualitative investigation

Williams, AE; Blake, A; Cherry, L; Alcacer-Pitarch, B; Edwards, C; Hopkinson, N; Vital, EM; Teh, LS

Abstract

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) can present with a variety of symptoms. Previous research has shown there is a high prevalence of lower limb and foot problems in patients with SLE associated with the musculoskeletal, vascular and neurological changes. Furthermore, there is a high prevalence of infections affecting the feet and a range of common skin and nail problems. However, it is not known how these foot problems impact upon people’s lives. Therefore, we aimed to explore this using a qualitative approach.
Method: Following ethical approval, 12 participants were recruited who had a diagnosis of SLE, current and/or past experience of foot problems and were over 18 years in age. Following consent, interviews were carried out with an interpretivist phenomenological approach to both data collection and analysis.
Results: Seven themes provide insight into: foot problems and symptoms; the impact of these foot problems and symptoms on activities; disclosure and diagnosis of foot problems; treatment of foot problems and symptoms; perceived barriers to professional foot care; unanswered questions about feet and foot care; and identification of the need for professional foot care and foot care advice.
Conclusion: These participants tend to “self-treat” rather than disclose that they may need professional foot care. A lack of focus upon foot health within a medical consultation is attributed to the participant’s belief that it is not within the doctor’s role, even though it is noted to contribute to reduced daily activity. There is a need for feet to be included as a part of patient monitoring and for foot health management to be made accessible for people with SLE.

Citation

Williams, A., Blake, A., Cherry, L., Alcacer-Pitarch, B., Edwards, C., Hopkinson, N., …Teh, L. (2017). Patients’ experiences of lupus related foot problems : a qualitative investigation. Lupus, 26(11), 1174-1181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203317696590

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 9, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 1, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 1, 2017
• Journal: Lupus
• Print ISSN: 0961-2033
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-0962
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 1174-1181
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203317696590
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961203317696590
• Related Public URLs: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/lup