Havelock Physiotherapy

Walking Speed Predicts CV Mortality in Older People

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Walking is one of the favorite activity pastimes of older adults, but few of them might consider that increasing their speed and agility may prevent hospitalization or disability. However, a study by Cesari and colleagues, which was published in the October 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, demonstrated that walking speed translates into important clinical outcomes. Among 3047 older adults, those with a walking speed of less than 1 meter per second were more likely to have a hospitalization or lower extremity disability vs older adults with a faster walking speed.
The Cesari study also suggested that participants with a slower walking speed also experienced an increased risk for death. The current study further investigates this issue.
Study Highlights
• Study researchers recruited community-dwelling adults between the ages of 65 and 85 years from 3 cities in France.
• Participants provided demographic and medical information at baseline. They also underwent an assessment of cardiovascular risk factors.
• Participants also performed a 6-meter walk test at their regular pace and maximal velocity.
• Researchers reevaluated participants approximately every 2 years for a mean of 5.1 years. The main outcome of the study was the rate of overall mortality. Researchers also examined the rates of cardiovascular and cancer mortality. All of these outcomes were adjusted to account for baseline risk factors for mortality. In addition, researchers accounted for covariates, such as baseline physical activity, which might affect walking velocity.
• 3208 participants provided data for analysis. The mean age was 73.2 years, and 65% of subjects were women.
• There were 209 deaths during a total of 16,414 person-years. Participants who died were more likely to be men and have more cardiovascular risks.
• Participants in the lowest third of walking speed were older, smaller, had a higher body mass index, and had lower physical activity levels and higher depression scores. Slower participants were also more likely to have hypertension or diabetes.
• There was no difference in any mortality outcome in comparing the middle vs upper tertiles of walking speed.
• Compared with the upper tertile of walking speed, those in the lowest tertile experienced a significant HR of 1.44 for all-cause mortality.
• The risk for cardiovascular death was nearly 3 times as high in comparing the lowest vs the highest tertile of walking speed.
• Walking speed had no significant effect on the risk for cancer mortality.
• Slow walking speed was associated with a higher risk for death in subgroup analyses based on sex, median age, median body mass index, the presence of coronary artery disease, and baseline level of physical activity.

Take home message: Keep walking everyone and at a reasonable pace! You need to keep your heart rate elevated for a reasonable period of time to improve or maintain the health of your heart and lungs. Come and see us if you feel you need advice on how to do this – we can help with balance, walking advice or advice on alternative forms of exercise if you cannot walk.