Types of foot problems seen by Australian podiatrists

Understanding frequency of foot problems can assist health care planners with resource deployment to new and emerging services such as paediatric podiatry and focus future research on the most salient foot conditions.

A review of 2187 patient consultations during a three month period was conducted. Patient medical and podiatric history was coded using industry standards. All patients were recruited for convenience from a metropolitan university podiatry clinic.

392 new patients were identified with mean age 40.6 years old (range 1-95), with 65% being female. Arthritic diseases, asthma, hypertension and allergies were the most common medical conditions reported. The frequency of new consultations in younger people (n=102; 27%) exceeded those of the elderly (n=75; 20%). Conversely, the elderly were nearly three times more prevalent in this cohort (n=910; 43%) compared to younger people (n=332; 16%).

This study illustrates the diverse nature of pathology seen by podiatrists. Knowledge that skin lesions are highly prevalent is of relevance to health departments, given the aging nature of most populations. Moreover there appears to be a growing trend in the number of young people who present for care, however government funded access to these services are limited.