Abstract
The mechanisms that regulate human walking are not fully understood, although there has been substantial research. In our study, we hypothesized that, although walking can be volitionally modified, it is also involuntary and controlled by evolutionary factors, such as the relationship between temperature and movement speed in poikilotherms. This study aimed to determine the effects of environmental temperature on speed, step length, and cadence during unrestrained walking over long periods. Customers of a private insurance company were asked to use a background smartphone GPS application that measured walking parameters. Participants were 1065 app users (298 men and 767 women) aged 14–86 years. Observed walking speed and cadence were higher in winter (average maximum temperature: 10.2 °C) than in summer (average maximum temperature: 29.8 °C) (p < 0.001). The walking parameters were closely related to environmental temperature, with cadence most strongly correlated with daily maximum temperature (r = − 0.812, p < 0.001) and indicating a curvilinear relationship. A decrease in environmental temperature was found to increase cadence when the temperature was below 30 °C. The findings suggest that walking may be regulated by environmental temperature and potentially by the autonomic nervous system’s response to environmental temperature.
Highlights
The mechanisms that regulate human walking are not fully understood, there has been substantial research
Step length, and cadence varied by month
Stratified analysis by age showed that the effect sizes of walking parameters between summer and winter tended to be similar to those found for the overall results; step length decreased in winter compared to summer in women aged 65 years and over (Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Figs. 1–3)
Summary
The mechanisms that regulate human walking are not fully understood, there has been substantial research. This study aimed to determine the effects of environmental temperature on speed, step length, and cadence during unrestrained walking over long periods. The findings suggest that walking may be regulated by environmental temperature and potentially by the autonomic nervous system’s response to environmental temperature Walking parameters, such as speed, step length, and cadence, are affected by various factors[1]. Levine and Norenzayn[14] compared pedestrian walking in 31 countries and found that walking speed is faster in cities with cooler temperatures than in warmer cities These results suggest that walking speed may be affected by environmental temperature; the conclusions of the previous studies were drawn using very limited research designs. The technical requirements of measurements make the effects of environmental temperature on walking parameters difficult to determine. GPS devices built into smartphones can reasonably measure walking speed, cadence, and step length in daily life over time[20,21]
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