Walking speed predicts longevity

Walking speed is associated with survival among older adults. Stephanie Studenski, University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues conducted a study to assess the association of gait speed with survival in older adults and to determine the degree to which gait speed explains variability in survival after accounting for age and sex. The study included a pooled analysis of 9 participating studies (collected between 1986 and 2000), using individual data from 34,485 community-dwelling adults age 65 years or older with walking speed data available at the beginning of the study, followed up for 6 to 21 years. During the study, there were 17,528 deaths. The overall five-year survival rate was 84.8 per cent; the 10-year survival rate was 59.7 per cent. The researchers found that gait speed was associated with differences in the probability of survival at all ages in both sexes, but was especially informative after age 75 years. At this age, predicted 10-year survival across the range of gait speeds ranged from 19 per cent to 87 per cent in men and from 35 per cent to 91 per cent in women. “In this older adult population the relationship of gait speed with remaining years of life was consistent across age groups, but the absolute number of expected remaining years of life was larger at younger ages,”wrote the authors.