A Scoping Review of the Predictive Qualities of Walking Speed in Older Adults

Walking speed (WS) is an easily assessable and interpretable functional outcome measure with great utility for the physical therapist providing care to older adults. Since WS was proposed as the sixth vital sign, research into its interpretation and use has flourished. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify the current prognostic value of WS for the older adult.

A scoping review was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus to find relevant articles highlighting the predictive capabilities of WS for older adults. Titles and abstracts were reviewed to identify relevant articles. Articles were excluded based on the following criteria: sample included both younger and older adults without separate analyses, sample was focused on a particular disease, if the study was published before 2017, or if the study did not report relevant cut points for interpretation of WS. The search returned 1064 results. Following removal of articles not meeting inclusion criteria and critical appraisal, relevant cut points were extracted from 47 original research publications.

A preliminary review of the included articles showed that WS is a valuable prognostic tool across many health domains, including mental health, mortality, disability, pain, bone and joint health, falls, cognition, physical activity, metabolic health, risk for cardiovascular disease, socialization, and metabolic health. The fastest WS of 1.32 meters per second (m/s) served as a cutoff for decreased risk for incident development of type 2 diabetes, while the slowest WS of less than 0.2 m/s was associated with increased duration of hospitalization. Multiple studies reported on the prognostic value of WS slower than 1.0 m/s.

Although the reported range of predictive WS values was broad, multiple studies found WS of approximately 1.0 m/s to be a useful marker for delineating risk or decline across a variety of health domains. Clinicians may find it useful to use a WS slower than 1.0 m/s as a "yellow flag" to guide evaluation and intervention for their older adult clients.