Podiatric health needs of homeless populations as a public health concern.
BACKGROUND
Foot and ankle health among the homeless is an important public health concern. There are limited studies done thus far on foot and ankle conditions and the podiatric medical needs of homeless populations. A literature review was undertaken to evaluate any studies published about the lower-extremity health needs among the homeless.


METHODS
We did a literature search through PubMed, the US National Library of Medicine's database of biomedical citations and abstracts for relevant publications from 1988 through 2008. We also searched the references cited in the articles found for any studies relevant to podiatric needs for homeless populations.


RESULTS
We found three relevant articles that addressed the needs of podiatric care for the homeless. The articles highlighted the community health importance of foot care for homeless populations, especially in helping prevent potentially limb-threatening pathologies.


CONCLUSIONS
The small number of studies published so far all emphasize the major public health need for podiatric care among homeless populations. More studies are needed to help address this important public health concern.
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University, Oakland, CA, USA.
Bright
B
Chen
Analiza
A
Mitchell
David
D
Tran
D005528:Foot; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011032:Podiatry; D011634:Public Health; D014481:United States