Intra-day variation in daily outdoor walking speed among community-dwelling older adults

Walking speed is an important measure associated with health outcomes in older individuals, such as dependency and death. This study aimed to examine whether the walking speed of community-dwelling older adults varies between time periods within a day, as measured outdoors in daily life. We aimed to determine the types of walking speed variations and examine the factors associated with them.

Daily life outdoor walking speed was measured in 92 participants (average age 71.9 years±5.64) using a GPS smartphone app for 1 month. Average walking speeds for five time periods were analyzed with a linear mixed model. Intra-day walking speed variation patterns were classified by latent class analysis. Factors associated with the class were identified by logistic regression analysis.

A statistically significant difference in average walking speed was found between early morning (1.33 m/s), and afternoon (1.27 m/s) and evening (1.26 m/s) (p < 0.01). The intra-day variation in walking speed was attributed to variation in cadence. Two classes were identified: (1) fast walking speed with large variation and (2) slow walking speed with little variation; hypertension and frailty level were associated with the class.

The results suggest that there is intra-day variation in walking speed in daily life, wherein the speed is the fastest early in the morning and slower in the afternoon and evening. A larger variation in the walking speed was related to the health status without hypertension or frailty. These results suggest that if a person shows less intra-day variation in walking speed, this could be a sign that they are susceptible to hypertension and an increased frailty level.