Walking speed in elderly outpatients depends on the assessment method

Abstract

Walking speed is shown to be an important indicator of the health status and function in older adults and part of the comprehensive geriatric assessment in clinical practice. The present study aimed to assess the influence of different assessment methods on walking speed and its association with the key aspects of poor health status, i.e., the presence of low cognitive performance and cardiopulmonary disease. In 288 community-dwelling elderly (mean age 82.2±7.1 years) referred to a geriatric outpatient clinic, walking speed was assessed with the 4-m, 10-m, and 6-min walking tests. The mean walking speed assessed with the 10-m walking test was higher compared to the 4-m and 6-min walking tests (mean difference (95 % CI) 0.11 m/s (0.10; 0.13) and 0.08 m/s (0.04; 0.13), respectively). No significant difference was found in the walking speed assessed with the 4-m compared to the 6-min walking test (mean difference (95 % CI) −0.03 m/s (−0.08; 0.03)). ICCs showed excellent agreement of the 4-m with the 10-m walking test and fair to good agreement of the 6-min with the 4-m as well as 10-m walking test. The presence of low cognitive performance was negatively associated with walking speed, with the highest effect size for the 4-m walking test. The presence of cardiopulmonary disease was negatively associated with walking speed as well, with the highest effect size for the 6-min walking test. In conclusion, in the clinically relevant population of elderly outpatients, walking speed and its interpretation depends on the assessment method, which therefore cannot be used interchangeably in clinical practice.

Prevalence of sarcopenia in Germany and the corresponding effect of osteoarthritis in females 70 years and older living in the community: results of the FORMoSA study

“…Additionally, it is rather unlikely that slight variations with respect to functional testing (eg, 4 vs 10 m walking trial, stopwatch vs automatic timers) could lead to such differences. Although Pasma et al 24 reported a significantly higher gait speed for 10 m compared with the 4 m walking trial in a cohort of elderly outpatients, this result was not confirmed for healthy, CD elderly people 65 years and older. 25 However, it is noticeable that gait speed among the present study (1.29±0.23 m/s) was considerably higher than described for a comparable cohort.…”

Prevalence of sarcopenic obesity in Germany using established definitions

“…(2) Another particularity of the study was the considerably higher gait speed (1.26 vs. 1.07 to 1.19 m/s) compared with other studies (n=27) of females 70-79 years old (review in [40]). We attribute this finding to two causes: (a) There is some evidence that the 10 m walking test conducted in this study may result in significantly higher gait speed compared with the shorter distances (4 m) [41] used in most other studies [40]; and (b) the high level of sports and exercise participation in our cohort (59.5 %) with corresponding positive consequences for gait speed. (3) Finally, the assessment of parameters related to independence and autonomy was carried out retrospectively and only for participants with SO (n=46) but should have been conducted initially for the complete study cohort.…”

Knee extension strength measurements should be considered as part of the comprehensive geriatric assessment

“…In contrast, some studies in community-dwelling older adults demonstrated that physical performance was associated with both HGS and KES in the same individuals [ 10 , 11 ]. The inconsistency in the association may be due to the use of six-minute walk test [ 10 ] and 12-m walk test [ 11 ] as physical assessments, in which other factor such as cardiovascular function plays a role in addition to muscle strength [ 23 ]. Additionally, KES and HGS were measured in only one leg and one hand [ 10 , 11 ] instead of both sides of the limbs in the current study.…”