Share on PinterestBoosting walking pace by 14 steps per minute could help fight frailty as we age, new research shows. Image credit: Santi Nuñez/Stocksy
- As much as 24% of the global older adult population faces issues related to frailty.
- Past studies have shown that frailty can heighten a person’s chance of developing cognitive impairment and dementia, and can also increase their fall risk.
- A new study has found that walking at a slightly faster speed than a person’s normal pace may help improve physical function in older adults who are frail or at a high risk for frailty.
- Researchers have developed and tested a smartphone app designed to accurately measure walking pace, which can make it easier for older adults to increase their pace.
Researchers estimate that as much as 24% of the world’s older adult population faces issues that are related to frailty — a medical condition that can increase a person’s risk for functional impairment.
Past studies show that frailty can heighten a person’s risk of cognitive impairment and dementia, as well as their fall risk.
“Falls and frailty are major threats to healthy aging,” Daniel Rubin, MD, associate professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Chicago Medical Center told Medical News Today.
“Falls are the leading cause of injury in older adults, with one in four experiencing a fall each year. Frailty increases vulnerability to stressors and is linked to hospitalizations, loss of independence, falls, and even death,” Rubin explained.
He is the lead author of a new study recently published in the journal PLOS One, which found that walking at a slightly faster speed than a person’s normal pace may help improve physical function in older adults who are frail or at a high risk for frailty.
Researchers have also developed and tested a smartphone app designed to accurately measure walking pace, which can make it easier for older adults to increase their pace.
Walking slightly faster improves physical function in older adults
For this study, researchers recruited 102 older adults ages 60 and older who were permanent residents in a retirement community, and were considered prefrail or frail.
Study participants were randomly assigned to one of two walking groups — a casual speed walking group and a high-intensity walking group.
“Walking is the most common form of exercise among older adults — it’s accessible, low-cost, and adaptable to many fitness levels,” Rubin said. “To get the most health benefits, walking should be done with enough intensity — and walking faster is one way to increase that intensity.“
“We wanted to see whether even frail or prefrail older adults could safely and meaningfully increase their walking speed and whether that would lead to superior improvements in physical function,” the researcher told us.
At the study’s conclusion, scientists found that prefrail and frail study participants who walked slightly fast — about 14 steps per minute more than their usual pace — experienced meaningful improvements in their physical function.
“This is a key finding because it shows that even modest increases in walking intensity can lead to meaningful improvements in physical function, even among frail or prefrail older adults,” Rubin explained. “The 14-step threshold is important because it gives a clear target for older adults to increase their intensity.”
“One of the challenges of prescribing walking is to convey to the patients how much intensity they should walk,” he continued. “Oftentimes there is the talk test, or they should walk a certain speed — 3-4 mph (miles per hour). Those are difficult for older adults to guide themselves. Here, we provide them with an objective measure that they can increase the number of steps/min that they walk to increase their intensity.”
New smartphone app to accurately measure walking cadence
In a second study published in the journal Digital Biomarkers, Rubin and his team spotlighted a clinical trial they conducted on a smartphone app they created called Walk Test, designed specifically to measure accurate walking cadence.
“We didn’t necessarily trust smartphones’ built-in analytics,” Rubin said in a press release. “Instead, we built an app that uses a novel open-source method to analyze the data measured by the phone and lets us actively engage users in brief, deliberate walking tests, ensuring accurate measurement.”
“We wanted to make it as low-barrier as possible so it’s easy for older adults to use without additional equipment. The people who need the most help are usually the least well-equipped to get started.”
– Daniel Rubin, MD
While the Walk Test app is not yet available to the public, Rubin told MNT they plan to make it publicly accessible once they secure additional funding to further develop and scale the app.
One more strategy for better fitness as we age
MNT had the opportunity to speak with Jonathan Bean, MD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, and physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital at Mass General Brigham, about this study.
“I viewed [this study] as informative regarding an established principle of exercise training for frail older adults, that being […] if you have individuals train an important physiologic quality at a level that approaches their maximal potential, that their physiologic potential will expand,” Bean, who was not involved in this research, told us.
According to him:
“It is very informative for clinicians identifying the potential benefit of having individuals walk at a brisker pace as a means of optimizing walking. It may be an additional mode of training that should be added to other existing training modes that optimize mobility skills.”
“Frailty is an important concept in the care of aging adults,” he continued. “It is a state reflective of a decreased capacity to recover from a significant medical event, such as a surgery, hospitalization or medical illness. It is an important early warning sign of individuals at risk for experiencing future adverse medical events, developing future disability and death over the next one to five years.”
‘Longevity starts now’
MNT also spoke to Bert Mandelbaum, MD, a sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon and co-director of the Regenerative Orthobiologic Center at Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedics in Los Angeles, about this research.
“There’s a lot of information now which basically looks at the details of exercise as a robust therapeutic intervention,” Mandelbaum, who was not involved in the study, said.
“And as we learn more, there’s a very linear approach — a little exercise is better than no exercise, more exercise is better than less exercise, and optimal exercise is better than more exercise,” he added.
“So the more we learn this, the more we learn that when you exercise more, you have greater bone density, greater density of cartilage, better balance, better mentation, better memory, [and] better motor coordination,” explained Mandelbaum. “And so a system that really has a higher level of training, that would be my expectation to see.”
“I have a great expression — longevity starts now. And the great thing about the plasticity of our bodies, whether you’re 50, 60, 80, 90, the answer is at any time, once you start to exercise, you get those benefits. Now, if you’re 89 years old, you are going to get benefits, but they’re not going to be as good and as incremental as if it were starting when you were 50. But the body is extraordinarily plastic […] so whatever point you start, it’s going to impact longevity in a positive way.”
– Bert Mandelbaum, MD
