Reference values of gait characteristics in community-dwelling older persons with different physical functional levels

Introduction:

Quantitative gait analysis can support clinical diagnostics, monitor progression of diseases, and provide information about the efficacy of interventions. We wanted to investigate values for gait parameters covering the broad spectrum of ageing, gender and health. Therefore, we differentiated between the groups robust, transient and frail by functional ability as measured with Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB).

Methods:

Three established frameworks that assess gait characteristics were combined into a new framework-based approach comprising eight gait parameters: gait speed, stride length, walk ratio, single and double support time, step width, step width CV (coefficient of variance), stride length CV. Gait parameters were stratified by the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and the LUCAS Functional Ability Index (FAI). Gait parameters of older community-dwelling persons were measured with an objective Gait system (GAITRite) across differing functional ability ranging from robust to transient (postrobust and prefrail) to frail physical status [1].

Results:

We assessed 642 community-dwelling participants (mean age 78.5 ± 4.8; female n = 409). Overall, our results showed clinically meaningful differences between the functional featuring a gradient declining from robust over transient to frail in most gait parameters.  Similar significant differences were obtained in the age group 80 years and older. With regard to gender also significant differences were found

Key conclusions:

Interestingly, we found that common practice of grouping by gender and age actually masks the wide continuum of values. In particular, functional ability seems to have an even larger influence on gait speed.

[1] Dapp et al. BMC Geriatrics (2022) 22:713