Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2009 Nov 10:339:b4460.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.b4460.

Slow walking speed and cardiovascular death in well functioning older adults: prospective cohort study

Julien Dumurgier  1 , Alexis Elbaz, Pierre Ducimetière, Béatrice Tavernier, Annick Alpérovitch, Christophe Tzourio
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Slow walking speed and cardiovascular death in well functioning older adults: prospective cohort study

Julien Dumurgier et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To study the relation between low walking speed and the risk of death in older people, both overall and with regard to the main causes of death.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Dijon centre (France) of the Three-City study.

Participants: 3208 men and women aged >or=65 living in the community, recruited from 1999 to 2001, and followed for an average of 5.1 years.

Main outcome measures: Mortality, overall and according to the main causes of death, by thirds of baseline walking speed (measured at maximum speed over six metres), adjusted for several potential confounders; Kaplan-Meier survival curves by thirds of baseline walking speed. Vital status during follow-up. Causes of death. Results During 16 414 person years of follow-up, 209 participants died (99 from cancer, 59 from cardiovascular disease, 51 from other causes). Participants in the lowest third of baseline walking speed had an increased risk of death (hazard ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval 1.03 to 1.99) compared with the upper thirds. Analyses for specific causes of death showed that participants with low walking speed had about a threefold increased risk of cardiovascular death (2.92, 1.46 to 5.84) compared with participants who walked faster. There was no relation with cancer mortality (1.03, 0.65 to 1.70). In stratified analyses, cardiovascular mortality was increased across various strata defined by sex, median age, median body mass index (BMI), and level of physical activity. Conclusion Slow walking speed in older people is strongly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

None
Fig 1 Kaplan-Meier estimates of cumulative incidence of death according to thirds of walking speed, overall and by cause of death. Cut offs (tertiles) for definition of thirds of walking speed were ≤1.50 m/s, 1.51-1.84 m/s, and ≥1.85 m/s for men and ≤1.35 m/s, 1.36-1.50 m/s, and >1.50 m/s for women
None
Fig 2 Walking speed in lowest third and risk of cardiovascular death: stratified analyses. Hazard ratios estimate relative risk of cardiovascular death in those in lowest third of walking speed (≤1.50 m/s for men; ≤1.35 m/s for women) compared with those in two highest thirds (reference group)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Hall WJ. Update in geriatrics. Ann Intern Med 2006;145:538-43. - PubMed
    1. Barak Y, Wagenaar RC, Holt KG. Gait characteristics of elderly people with a history of falls: a dynamic approach. Phys Ther 2006;86:1501-10. - PubMed
    1. Morita M, Takamura N, Kusano Y, Abe Y, Moji K, Takemoto T, et al. Relationship between falls and physical performance measures among community-dwelling elderly women in Japan. Aging Clin Exp Res 2005;17:211-6. - PubMed
    1. Guralnik JM, Ferrucci L, Pieper CF, Leveille SG, Markides KS, Ostir GV, et al. Lower extremity function and subsequent disability: consistency across studies, predictive models, and value of gait speed alone compared with the short physical performance battery. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2000;55:M221-31. - PubMed
    1. Montero-Odasso M, Schapira M, Soriano ER, Varela M, Kaplan R, Camera LA, et al. Gait velocity as a single predictor of adverse events in healthy seniors aged 75 years and older. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2005;60:1304-9. - PubMed

Publication types