Walking Faster May cause a Longer Life
A swift stride puts yourself on the path to a longer, healthier life, researchers say.
Scientists reporting in The Journalof the American Medical Association say that older adults who typically walk 1 meter per second or faster live longer than expected. A walking, or gait, speed of 1 meter per second comes to 3.28 feet per second.
Walking speed invariably is an important sign of someone's general health. A slow walking speed may be due to multiple causes including heart, lung, or neurological system problems, or even pain. Several studies have suggested if you have a person with a walking speed slower than 0.6 meters per second (lower than 2 feet per second) is probably at increased risk for poor health and function.
Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH, in the University of Pittsburgh, analyzed the collective outcomes of nine previous studies to see if walking speed explained survival differences among older adults and whether or not this could be used to predict longevity.
Study participants walked at their usual pace using a standing start, while researchers calculated distance in meters and in time seconds. The average age of the participants was 73.5; many were white women.
Faster Pace Boosts Lifetime
The average walking speed to the study participants was 0.92 meters per second, or about 3 feet per second. Ones own predicted life expectancy per sex and population increased the faster put on walk.
The survival differences were especially notable among patients age 75 and older. The predicted 10-year survival rate varied greatly with walking speeds, from 19% to 87% that face men and from 35% to 91% in women.
Gait speeds of 1.0 meter [3.28 feet]/second or higher consistently demonstrated survival which had been longer than expected by age and sex alone. In this particular older adult population the relationship of gait speed with remaining great deal life was consistent across ages, but the absolute volume of expected remaining good deal life was larger at younger ages, the researchers write.
Calculating life span based on walking speed, sex, and age was as accurate as predictions dependent on other factors, such as age, sex, all around health, mobility, hospitalization, and smoking history.
Walking Speed Predicts Survival
Considering our walking speed along with their age and sex is a straightforward, inexpensive, and useful method estimate a patient's expected duration of life, the researchers say. All that is required is a stopwatch along with walkway. Life expectancy estimates can help doctors develop a better, individualized plan of look after patients.
"Gait speed may also help identify older adults having high probability of living for five or 10 more years, who might be appropriate targets for preventive interventions which need years for benefit," the team writes.
Regular walking speed measurements may be used to monitor people over time to check for signs of ailing health, the researchers say.
Not everyone agrees that walking speed measurements should sway maintenance at the current time. Within accompanying editorial to the journal article, Rome-based researcher Matteo Cesari, MD, PhD, says that walking speed improvements have not been definitively linked with better health outcomes. He encourages future research to discover if a person's walking speed may get a new way in which he or she is labeled "geriatric."
Scientists reporting in The Journalof the American Medical Association say that older adults who typically walk 1 meter per second or faster live longer than expected. A walking, or gait, speed of 1 meter per second comes to 3.28 feet per second.
Walking speed invariably is an important sign of someone's general health. A slow walking speed may be due to multiple causes including heart, lung, or neurological system problems, or even pain. Several studies have suggested if you have a person with a walking speed slower than 0.6 meters per second (lower than 2 feet per second) is probably at increased risk for poor health and function.
Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH, in the University of Pittsburgh, analyzed the collective outcomes of nine previous studies to see if walking speed explained survival differences among older adults and whether or not this could be used to predict longevity.
Study participants walked at their usual pace using a standing start, while researchers calculated distance in meters and in time seconds. The average age of the participants was 73.5; many were white women.
Faster Pace Boosts Lifetime
The average walking speed to the study participants was 0.92 meters per second, or about 3 feet per second. Ones own predicted life expectancy per sex and population increased the faster put on walk.
The survival differences were especially notable among patients age 75 and older. The predicted 10-year survival rate varied greatly with walking speeds, from 19% to 87% that face men and from 35% to 91% in women.
Gait speeds of 1.0 meter [3.28 feet]/second or higher consistently demonstrated survival which had been longer than expected by age and sex alone. In this particular older adult population the relationship of gait speed with remaining great deal life was consistent across ages, but the absolute volume of expected remaining good deal life was larger at younger ages, the researchers write.
Calculating life span based on walking speed, sex, and age was as accurate as predictions dependent on other factors, such as age, sex, all around health, mobility, hospitalization, and smoking history.
Walking Speed Predicts Survival
Considering our walking speed along with their age and sex is a straightforward, inexpensive, and useful method estimate a patient's expected duration of life, the researchers say. All that is required is a stopwatch along with walkway. Life expectancy estimates can help doctors develop a better, individualized plan of look after patients.
"Gait speed may also help identify older adults having high probability of living for five or 10 more years, who might be appropriate targets for preventive interventions which need years for benefit," the team writes.
Regular walking speed measurements may be used to monitor people over time to check for signs of ailing health, the researchers say.
Not everyone agrees that walking speed measurements should sway maintenance at the current time. Within accompanying editorial to the journal article, Rome-based researcher Matteo Cesari, MD, PhD, says that walking speed improvements have not been definitively linked with better health outcomes. He encourages future research to discover if a person's walking speed may get a new way in which he or she is labeled "geriatric."
jacquelineweller - 10. Jan, 02:25
