Access to podiatric care analyzed through the CMS National Downloadable File and US census data

Workforce analysis and access to care investigations are relatively lacking in podiatric medicine and surgery. This might be of concern when considering fragility within the medical workforce infrastructure, rising diabetes mellitus prevalence rates, and the aging US population.

The objective of this investigation was to provide a broad description of podiatric physician practice location distribution as it relates to population, economic factors, and diabetes prevalence.

Epidemiologic descriptive analysis.

The CMS National Downloadable File, US census data, and American Diabetes Association state statistics were utilized to provide correlation data and ratios of relative podiatric work force distribution.

We identified 6603 US zip codes in the CMS National Downloadable File with at least one DPM billing address. Statistically significant positive Pearson correlation coefficients were observed between the number of DPM billing addresses in a zip code with zip code population (0.281; p<0.001), median income (0.083; p<0.001), and mean income (0.099; p<0.001). We further observed a mean±standard deviation (range) of 2582.1±1593.8 (824-10148) state residents with diabetes mellitus per DPM in the US. The southeastern US tended to demonstrate higher ratios potentially indicating the potential for more challenging diabetes patient access to care, whereas the northeast corridor tended to demonstrate lower ratios.

The results of this investigation provide unique information on podiatric physician distribution of practice location, and might be utilized as an introductory starting point to improve the efficacy of podiatric care offered to patients in the US.