The Tarsal Bone Test : A Basic Test of Health Sciences Students' Knowledge of Lower Limb Anatomy

Abstract EN

Objectives.

The aim of the present study was to design an easy-to-use tool, the tarsal bone test (TBT), to provide a snapshot of podiatry students’ basic anatomical knowledge of the bones of the lower limb.

Methods.

The study included 254 podiatry students from three different universities, 145 of them were first-year students and 109 were in their fourth and final years.

The TBT was administered without prior notice to the participants and was to be completed in 5 minutes.

Results.

The results show that 97.2% of the subjects (n=247) correctly labelled all tarsal bones, while the other 2.8% (n=7) incorrectly labelled at least one bone, that was either the cuboid (7 times) or the navicular (6 times).

Although only one fourth-year student inaccurately identified one bone, no significant differences in the distribution of the correct and incorrect responses were found between first and fourth-year students.

Conclusions.

The TBT seems to be a straightforward and easy-to-apply instrument, and provides an objective view of the level of knowledge acquired at different stages of podiatry studies.