Incorporating ‘Green Podiatry’ into your clinic, and into your life

Evans, Angela

doi:10.1186/s13047-022-00591-y

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…We can take a 'green L.E.A.P.' 28 to educate ourselves and our patients about 'big picture' health. This is especially important for younger colleagues, to allay eco-anxiety 33…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stepping up for Climate Change and Health: The Three Pillars of Green Podiatry

Evans

2023

Preprint

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Introduction The climate crisis is essentially a public health crisis. Response is imperative to prevent economic and social crises associated with the growing burden of climate impacts on human health and the health care sector. Green Podiatry Pillars By adopting the three pillars of Exercise, Evidence, and Everyday changes, podiatrists can contribute to more sustainable health and health care. Discussion Educating our patients to use their feet for low carbon active transport, eliminating interventions not supported by evidence, and reducing fossil fuel driven supply chains and energy use, are three impactful measures that all podiatrists, and indeed, all health and medical personnel, need to adopt. The avoidable suffering, enormous and costly use of resources for diabetic foot disease, is a scourge that must realise its preventable potential. It is too late, too costly, too polluting, and too sad, to continue to direct health care and research efforts and budgets, to an expensive modifiable diabetes disease process, potentiated by poor food and physical inactivity. Affected patients require skilled support, to avert such chronic disease processes, often not of their making. Conclusions Healthcare contributes 5 to 8% of green house gases (GHG), and non-communicable diseases (NCD) are increasing, so healthcare must lead on primary health. As citizens and health professionals, we must advocate for better community health, and educate our patients. Future Directions All health and medical personnel need to consider planetary health and sustainable healthcare within their daily work. Healthcare must act to address climate change, and realise benefits for people and planet.

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“…We can take a 'green L.E.A.P.' 28 to educate ourselves and our patients about 'big picture' health. This is especially important for younger colleagues, to allay eco-anxiety 33…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 2 summarises the three Green Podiatry pillars. Our everyday actions can contribute to environmental and social sustainability 4,8,28 .…”

Section: Everyday Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stepping up for Climate Change and Health: The Three Pillars of Green Podiatry

Evans

2023

Preprint

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“…In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportune movement to address climate change, leading to 47% of Australians showing increased concern about climate change [ 3 ]. Furthermore, it was observed that this concern about climate change surpassed that of COVID-19 by three times [ 3 ]. Over time, the pandemic was perceived as an exacerbating factor of the climate crisis, creating an ongoing and evolving issue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Green podiatry, as part of sustainable healthcare, guides us to be responsible consumers of energy and products and to reduce emissions in the workplace. However, Spanish podiatrists are still unaware of these concepts and therefore do not apply them to improve the planet’s overall health [ 3 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Degree of Knowledge and Commitment of the Spanish Podiatry Community to Green Podiatry: A Preliminary Report

Gómez-Ruiz,

Martínez-Nova,

Simón-Pérez

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Climate change is real and we are witnessing its consequences, such as rising temperatures, water scarcity, and sea-level rise, among other significant impacts. As healthcare professionals, podiatrists should be concerned about climate change; however, they still contribute to the damage caused. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the level of awareness among podiatrists regarding this issue and determine their attitudes toward the climate change process. The study involved conducting a survey comprising a series of questions, including personal information, Likert-scale questions, and short questions to evaluate attitudes toward environmental sustainability in their workplace and how they contribute to the climate change process. The questions addressed their commuting habits to determine sustainability, the number of hours of physical exercise per week, and their clinical attitudes, such as prescribing unnecessary treatments or emphasizing sports as the primary treatment. The results revealed that nearly 89% of the respondents were unaware of ecological podiatry or shoe recycling. Regarding clinical attitudes, 31.1% of the respondents stated that they prescribe sports as the primary treatment for all their patients, while 37.9% do so in most cases. They also tend to avoid prescribing unnecessary treatments, with 44.9% stating that they never prescribe them unless absolutely necessary. In conclusion, based on this survey, Spanish podiatrists do not undertake favorable actions for climate change and lack knowledge of the concept of “ecological podiatry”. To improve the situation, efforts should focus on waste reduction, eliminating unnecessary treatments, and promoting and practicing ecological podiatry.

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