Reference values for gait speed in elderly over 65 years of age

Abstract

Objetive: To provide reference values for four-metre Gait Speed (GS) in people over 65 years of age in the Basque Country and to establish cut-off points for early detection of frailty in clinical practice. Design: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, in which four-metre GS test values were collected from 1,871 adults over 65 years of age, and then the test time (TT) and GS in metres per second were extracted. Results: The cut-off points ranged from 2.99 seconds to 3.95 seconds in TT and 0.89 to 0.70 in GS in females and from 2.66 seconds to 3.85 seconds in TT and 0.99 to 0.73 in GS in males. ANOVA results show that there is a statistically significant difference in TT for age groups (F =41.51 - p<.01) and sex (F = 15.55 - p<.01) and in GS for age (F =39.32 - p<.01) and sex (F = 25.67 - p<.01). The decrease in the two variables, highlighting that the TT parameter increases over the years by 32.97% and the GS value decreases by 21.42% respectively, clinically relevant values. Conclusions: The data show that men achieved better scores in all age ranges than women in the 4-metre GS test. The four-metre GS test is simple and applicable in primary care for the early detection of frailty.