Age-related changes in gait domains: Results from the LonGenity study.
Oshadi Jayakody, Monique Breslin, Emmeline Ayers and 5 others
PMID 36463714WHAT IT FOUND
As older adults age, walking pace and step time worsen faster, especially in people with cognitive impairment or mobility disability.
Variability rises gradually. This helps PTs and OTs identify at-risk older adults.
Key findings
01With aging, pace declined and rhythm increased in an accelerating non-linear way, while variability increased linearly.
02Compared with people without cognitive impairment, those with cognitive impairment had faster decline in pace and faster increase in rhythm, but not faster increase in variability.
03Compared with people without mobility disability, those with mobility disability had faster increase in rhythm, but not faster decline in pace or increase in variability.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample was genetically homogeneous, well-educated, and had low comorbidities, so the results may not apply to all community-dwelling older adults. One person with dementia and 298 people with missing baseline gait data were excluded; 92 people were lost to follow-up. Those lost were older, less educated, more cognitively impaired, had slower gait speed, and had poorer global cognition, so the retained group may be healthier. Mobility disability was based on subjective difficulty climbing stairs, not measured stair performance, and the sample had a lower prevalence of mobility disability than other community studies. Gait was measured from a single 8.5-meter walk, with a mean of 19 steps at baseline, which may affect reliability, especially variability. The study did not establish clinically meaningful changes in gait domains or simple low-cost ways to assess them in clinical settings.
Declared interests
No funding source is stated. J Verghese is on the advisory board of a company; other authors declare no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as evidence that treating pace, rhythm or variability prevents decline. The study followed people over time and did not test an intervention.