Abstract
BackgroundWalking speed is an important health indicator in older adults, although its measurement can be challenging because of the functional decline due to aging and limited environment. The aim of this study was to examine whether hand grip strength can be a useful proxy for detecting slow walking speed in this population.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted using the cohort from the Yilan Study in Taiwan. Community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and older were included. Slow walking speed was defined as a 6-meter walking speed < 1.0 m/s, according to the 2019 Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia diagnostic criteria. Stepwise multiple linear regression was used to determine the most significant variables associated with walking speed. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to determine the optimal cutoff values for hand grip strength in detecting slow walking speed.ResultsA total of 301 participants with an average age of 73.9 ± 6.8 years were included; 55.1 % participants were women. In stepwise multiple linear regression analysis that included various variables, hand grip strength was found to be the most explainable factor associated with walking speed among all participants and among participants of each sex. The optimal cutoff values for hand grip strength in the detection of slow walking speed were 19.73 kg for all participants (sensitivity: 55 %, specificity: 83 %, area under the curve: 0.74, accuracy: 66.9 %), 35.10 kg for men (sensitivity: 92 %, specificity: 42 %, area under the curve: 0.70, accuracy: 66.4 %), and 17.93 kg for women (sensitivity: 62 %, specificity: 80 %, area under the curve: 0.76, accuracy: 67.9 %).ConclusionsHand grip strength was found to be a useful proxy for the identification of slow walking speed in older adults.
Highlights
The global trend of population aging is increasing dramatically, and frailty has become a vital issue owing to its increasing prevalence and adverse impact on older adults
Walking speed was associated with age, height, weight, hand grip strength, and muscle mass
In this study, we found that hand grip strength was significantly associated with walking speed; it was the only variable associated with walking speed in both sexes after considering various sociodemographic, lifestyle, and anthropometric factors in community-dwelling older adults
Summary
The global trend of population aging is increasing dramatically, and frailty has become a vital issue owing to its increasing prevalence and adverse impact on older adults. In the definition of frailty, hand grip strength and walking speed are the core criteria [5]. Both hand grip strength and gait are altered with aging and reflect the severity of sarcopenia associated with frailty. It is important to develop a proxy for the identification of slow walking speed for assessing frailty. Walking speed is an important health indicator in older adults, its measurement can be challenging because of the functional decline due to aging and limited environment. The aim of this study was to examine whether hand grip strength can be a useful proxy for detecting slow walking speed in this population
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have