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Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Walking Speed and Survival Connected

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: January 04, 2011
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Video Source: JAMA
Walking speed -- an indicator of vitality -- may help clinicians predict how long their older patients will live, a meta-analysis showed.

In a pooled analysis of nine cohort studies, each 1-m/s increase in gait speed was associated with a 12% relative reduction in the risk of death during follow-up (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.90), according to Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues.

The risk reduction was consistent across most subgroups -- except for functional status -- with hazard ratios ranging from 0.81 to 0.92 (P<0.002 for all), the researchers reported in the Jan. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

If use of gait speed -- a simple indicator of physical function -- as a predictor of survival is implemented in clinical practice, it may help clinicians individualize the treatment of older patients, according to Studenski and her colleagues./.../

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