Legs for Life

The Society of Interventional Radiology’s Legs for Life® programme is a national screening programme for peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and abdominal aortic aneurysm dedicated to improving cardiovascular health of the community.

In the US, September is National PVD Awareness Month and the week of 7-12 September 2003 is Legs For Life – National Screening Week for PVD leg pain.

The SIR will coordinate free screenings in hundreds of hospitals and clinics across the country. During this national screening week a team of health professionals and volunteers will hold one or two-day patient screenings. Using a questionnaire and Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) test results obtained at the screening, members and their colleagues counsel patients on PVD prevention and their risk for PVD. Using a questionnaire or ultrasound, many sites also screen for AAA and/or provide education about the disease. Patients screened are referred on to their primary care physicians for additional diagnosis and treatment.

Legs For Life was founded by the SIR in 1997, piloted in 1998, and launched nationally in 1999. Collaborating organisations include the American Diabetes Association, the American Radiological Nurses Association, the Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention of the American Heart Association, and the Society for Vascular Nursing. Programme funding is administered by the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Research and Education Foundation (CIRREF).

Programme impact
1998 – 2002:

Individuals screened to date – 249,270

Screened for AAA – 29,020 (2000, 2001, 2002)

Health care professionals involved – >23,000

Contacts to primary care physicians – 200,928 prior to the screenings and 133,196 after the screenings indicating their patients were screened

Risk levels of those screened for PVD have remained consistent: Approximately 1 in 4 individuals were either at moderate- or high-risk for PVD

Patients at risk for AAA: (ultrasound – 25%) (survey – 22%)

2002 Legs For Life highlights
New programme components:

Bob Uecker’s story and video on AAA featured on the Legs For Life public website

More than 70% of sites that screened for AAA used ultrasound. Sites screening for AAA increased 31%

Legs For Life publications in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology:

Statistics:

Approximately 576 Legs For Life screenings were held at 451 sites

178 of the Legs For Life sites screened for AAA

More than 5,046 medical professionals collaborated to screen more than 47,000 patients for PVD and 16,000 for AAA.

90.4% of sites who participated in 2002 would participate again

25% of those screened were found to be at either moderate or high risk for PVD (high risk – 6% and moderate risk – 19%)

23.3 % were found to be at risk for AAA using questionnaire only

24.9% were found to be at risk for AAA using Ultrasound and questionnaire

More than 50,000 consumers visited the Legs For Life Web site, and more than 41,000 called the Society’s toll free patient information number.

For further information visit www.legsforlife.org.