Comparison of Usual Podiatric Care and Early Physical Therapy for Plantar Heel Pain
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01865734. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Comparison of Usual Podiatric Care and Early Physical Therapy for Plantar Heel Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Plantar heel pain (PHP) is one of the most common foot conditions in podiatry and physical therapy practice and often is associated with chronic symptoms, and disability. Persistence of symptoms adds to the economic burden of PHP and cost-effective solutions are needed to reduce this burden. Currently, there is wide variation in treatment, cost, and outcomes of care for PHP. Two practice guidelines are available to direct management patterns, but the guidelines and recent evidence of PHP interventions are unclear about the timing and influence of physical therapy in the multidisciplinary management of PHP. The purpose of this investigation is to compare the outcomes and costs associated with early physical therapy (ePT) following initial presentation to podiatry versus usual podiatric care (uPOD) in individuals with PHP. It is hypothesized that there will be greater improvement and/or reduced costs associated with either ePT or uPOD. In this study, 112 individuals with PHP will be randomized to receive uPOD or ePT after an initial visit with a podiatrist. Treatment provided in the uPOD group will reflect usual management patterns and intervention will be determined by the podiatrist. Treatment provided in the ePT group will be determined by the physical therapist and will focus on impairment-based manual therapy and exercise to the lower half of the body. In addition, evidence-based pain modulating modalities will be integrated into ePT treatment. Comparisons will be made between groups in the Foot and Ankle Ability measure (FAAM), the European Quality of Life (EQ-5D), Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), Global Rating of Change (GROC), and cost of treatment at 6, 26, and 52, weeks. The association between successful outcome based on GROC score and patient expectation of physical therapy or podiatry, and general expectations of symptom improvement will be analyzed. The results of this investigation will help to determine the impact of ePT to inform practice, update existing guidelines to reduce practice variation, and identify the most cost effective treatment for patients with PHP.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01865734
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 95 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
Other
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 70 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Nov 30, 2013
- Primary completion
- Oct 31, 2017
- Completion
- Oct 31, 2017
- Last update posted
- Jan 21, 2019
2013 – 2017
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Des Moines University | Des Moines | Iowa | 50312 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01865734, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jan 21, 2019 · Synced Sep 5, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01865734 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.