Faster or longer steps: Maintaining fast walking in older adults at risk for mobility disability.

This was a baseline cross-sectional analysis, not a randomized trial or intervention study, so it cannot show that changing step length or timing would improve mobility or reduce falls. The sample was small and narrow: sedentary adults aged 65 to 80 with limited preferred walking speed and SPPB scores that were neither below 6 nor 12, so it may not apply to more active healthy older adults or people with more severe disability. One participant was removed as an outlier, and missing data were handled by removing participants from the affected analyses, which can reduce the number of participants available for some comparisons. The clinical measures did not explain significant variability in the strategy score after correction. The authors could not determine whether the time-dominant strategy is an intrinsic limitation or a choice.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural funding.

Do not read the time-dominant strategy as a proven cause of falls or future mobility disability. The study compared groups at one time, did not test an intervention, and the clinical measures did not explain significant variability in the strategy score after correction.