Comfortable and maximum walking speed of adults aged 20-79 years: reference values and determinants

Richard W. Bohannon

Keywords: gait, measurement muscle strength

Introduction

For most individuals, independent functioning in the community presupposes the ability to walk. It should not be surprising, therefore, that surveys of patients or the families of patients participating in rehabilitation show them to consider walking as a high priority [1-3]. Although there are many aspects of walking on which the clinician might focus, speed has often been recommended for use as a measure of status and outcome [3-6]. Given the objectivity of speed and its importance to safe ambulation in the community [7-9], such a recommendation is understandable. If the clinician is to make judgements about the normality of a patient’s speed, reference values are required for comparison. Some reference values have been published [10-15]. The applicability of available values, however, may be limited for reasons outlined recently [15]. The primary purpose of this study was to provide reference values for comfortable and maximum gait speed for individuals of 20-79 years of age. I have also assessed the intra-session reliability of the gait speed measures and determined the correlation of selected variables with the gait speed measures.

Materials and methods

Following the provision of written informed consent, 230 apparently healthy individuals between 20 and 79 years of age participated in this descriptive, cross-sectional study. Prior to testing, all subjects claimed no known neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, or cardiovascular pathology affecting their ambulatory capacity and ,were able to walk at least 30 m without assistance or the use of a device. The age, sex, height and weight of each subject was documented (Table 1). Subjects self-rated their work and leisure activity using the four-level ordinal scale (1-4) of Saltin and Grimby [16]. The modal and median level of activity for the subjects was 2.

Table 1. Characteristics of subjects, sorted by decade of age and sex

Age (years) Weight (kg) Height (cm)

Decade Sex (n) X s X s X s

20s F (22) 22.2 2.3 59.0 6.5 164.3 6.6

M (15) 23.9 3.2 80.7 9.4 177.0 6.8

30s F (23) 35.1 2.7 66.4 18.9 164.0 7.4

M (13) 34.2 2.9 80.4 13.1 176.0 5.5

40s F (21) 44.1 2.6 63.2 13.2 162.9 8.1

M (22) 44.9 2.6 86.2 13.5 175.3 7.3

50s F (21) 53.8 2.8 64.5 11.4 161.8 5.2

M (22) 54.9 3.1 87.2 14.3 175.3 7.6

60s F (18) 64.8 3.0 63.4 9.7 160.4 5.1

M (18) 66.2 2.8 81.1 9.8 174.9 5.4

70s F (20) 73.1 3.1 59.3 8.6 157.6 4.8

M (22) 73.0 2.8 77.3 9.1 174.4 5.5

Taking yourself lightly

Psychiatric illness in hip fracture