Validation of Electronic Foot Function Index in Patients with Foot and Ankle Disease: A Randomized, Prospective Multicenter Study / 대한족부족관절학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficiency of the electronic foot function index (eFFI) through a prospective, random based, multi-institutional study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 227 patients ranging in age from 20 to 79 years, visited for surgery in different 15 institutes, and agreed to volunteer. The patients were assigned randomly into a paper-based evaluated group (n=113) and tablet-based evaluated group (n=114). The evaluation was done on the day of hospital admission and the method was changed on the second day of surgery and re-evaluated. PADAS 2.0 (https://www.proscore.kr) was used as an electronic evaluation program. RESULTS: There were no differences in age and sex in both groups. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) evaluation revealed an eFFI ICC of 0.924, showing that both results were similar. The evaluation time was shorter in the tablet-based group than the paper-based group (paper vs tablet, 3.7±3.8 vs 2.3±1.3 minutes). Thirty-nine patients (17.2%) preferred to use paper and 131 patients (57.7%) preferred the tablet. Fifty-seven patients (25.1%) found both ways to be acceptable. CONCLUSION: eFFI through tablet devices appears to be more constant than the paper-based program. In addition, it required a shorter amount of time and the patients tended to prefer the tablet-based program. Overall, tablet and cloud system can be beneficial to a clinical study.