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I saw both my parents go downhill with pain in their feet from arthritis. Isn't there a way that doctors can tell early if someone is going to have such problems with their feet?

Unfortunately, it's not always possible to tell who will develop arthritis in their feet and who will have difficulties with pain and movement.

That being said, there is on-going research to try and identify people at risk early enough to be able to make a difference with treatment and intervention. Some research is focusing on the gait and evaluating if a person's gait starts to change before the symptoms of arthritis become obvious.

Reference: 

John Riel, Daniel Tomaszewski, and Gerard Cush. Midfoot arthritis: evaluation and treatment, surgical and nonsurgical. In Current Orthopaedic Practice. May/June 2008. Vol. 19. No. 3. Pp. 249-252.

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