Walking Speed: The Functional Vital Sign

By Addie Middleton, S. Fritz, M. Lusardi. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 2014

1,127 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Walking speed (WS) is a valid, reliable, sensitive measure appropriate for assessing and monitoring functional status and overall health in a wide range of populations. These capabilities have led to its designation as the “6th vital sign”. By synthesizing the available evidence on WS, this scholarly review article provides clinicians with a reference tool regarding this robust measure. Recommendations on testing procedures for assessing WS, including optimal distance, inclusion of acceleration/deceleration phases, instructions, and instrumentation are given. After assessing an individual’s WS, clinicians need to know what this value represents. Therefore, WS cut-off values and the corresponding predicted outcomes, as well as minimal detectable change values for specific populations and settings are provided.

Subfields: Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation, Psychiatry and Mental health, Surgery

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9d1dbd49083390298065495b88c82bbbf0c3a174

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Citations in the corpus

• Age-Related Diseases and Clinical and Public Health Implications for the 85 Years Old and Over Population (2017, background): “Walking speed measurements can be used to predict future community ambulation, falls, disability (37), and risk of mortality (38).”