Understanding Foot Health: An Evolutionary Perspective
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 112
Special Issue Editors
Interests: evolution; running; barefoot; movement; injury; developmental; medicine; musculoskeletal; physiology; biomechanics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Humans evolved slowly over the course of millions of years. Our bodies evolved, primarily, to cover large distances in our bare feet while hunting and gathering. Our environment tended to change slowly around us until the advent of agriculture, the industrial revolution, and, most recently, the internet. This has led to a rapid change in our environment that our bodies are not equipped for. Changes in our nutritional environment, combined with sedentary behavior, has led to a widespread increase in diseases associated with metabolic syndrome. One lesser-discussed change, and the focus of this Special Issue, is how rapid changes in both footwear and surfaces have affected foot development and subsequent diseases of the foot.
This Special Issue welcomes submissions on how footwear and the artificial surfaces we walk or run on influence foot development, health, and disease. We are particularly interested in papers which can illuminate how footwear–surface interactions can both cause diseases of the foot and be used in the prevention and/or treatment of foot-related diseases. Papers which discuss footwear recommendations and medical practitioner knowledge of footwear recommendations for healthy foot development are also welcome.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Peter Francis
Dr. Des Earls
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- evolution
- running
- barefoot
- movement
- injury
- developmental
- medicine
- musculoskeletal
- physiology
- biomechanics
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