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. 2020 Jan;62(1):e12171.
doi: 10.1002/1348-9585.12171.

Walking at work: Maximum gait speed is related to work ability in hospital nursing staff

Chad Aldridge  1   2 , Victor Tringali  3 , Robert Rhodes  1 , Kohl Kershisnik  1 , Debra Creditt  4 , Jorge Gonzalez-Mejia  2 , Jose Lugo-Vargas  2 , Jean Eby  2
Affiliations

Walking at work: Maximum gait speed is related to work ability in hospital nursing staff

Chad Aldridge et al. J Occup Health. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: Like the concept of work ability in occupational health, gait speed is a measure of general fitness and can predict functional decline and morbidity. This is especially important when our care-takers, i.e. nurses, show decline in fitness and become care-receivers. The study aims to describe the demographics of hospital nurses in the context of gait speed and work ability as well as to determine the association between them.

Methods: Three-hundred and twelve inpatient nurses and nursing assistants were sampled from a level 1 trauma and teaching hospital from several service lines and acuity levels. Spearman correlation tests were utilized to determine the relationship of gait speed and ratings of item 1 on the Work Ability Index (WAI) as well as Cochran-Armitage test for linear trend of gait speed.

Results: Maximum gait speed has a significant positive association with work ability with a Rho coefficient of 0.217 (P < .0001). Additionally, the linear trend test of gait speed tertiles was significant (P < .001) for work ability categories of Moderate to Poor (0-7) and Good to Excellent (8-10).

Conclusions: Gait speed is correlated with the item 1 self-rating of the WAI in hospital nursing staff. The 10-m walk test is a practical and easy measure that can be utilized in occupational health. More research is required to validate gait speed in other occupational health populations and investigate gait speed changes and its interaction with the work environment longitudinally.

Keywords: gait speed; hospital; nurse; occupation; walking; work ability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethical approval: The study received ethical approval from the Institutional Review board (IRB) of the University of Virginia. Informed consent: All participants provided informed verbal consent prior to participation. Written consent was waived by the IRB. Registry and the registration no. of the study/trial: N/A. Animal studies: N/A. Conflict of interest: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Relationship of Gait Speed to Experience (A) and BMI (B)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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