The basic result (old people who walk faster live longer than old people who hobble around) shouldn't come as a surprise at all: if you see two 75-year-old women at the mall, and one breezes by you like she has somewhere to be while the other shuffles past slowly, and you had to bet on which person had longer to live, you'd pick the fast one.
The interesting part is how strong the result is: "Predicted survival based on age, sex, and gait speed was as accurate as predicted based on age, sex, use of mobility aids, and self-reported function or as age, sex, chronic conditions, smoking history, blood pressure, body mass index, and hospitalization."
That's pretty remarkable. For a given age and sex, all of a person's headline medical information, taken together, is as good an indicator of longevity as their walking speed is.
Of course, the gait speed itself takes as inputs many of the rest of those factors. Smoking history, body mass index, and chronic joint or muscular conditions all pretty directly affect one's ability to walk fast. So gait speed turns out to be a very convenient, easily measured proxy for those other variables.
This is not saying that adopting a faster gait speed will cause you to live longer. It's saying that a person's gait speed is a good indicator of how much longer they're likely to live. To me, it seems likelier that there's a common factor which causes both slower gait speed and death, so how fast you try to walk isn't the important factor.
My guess would be the common factor is likely a person's general cumulative state of health (e.g. obesity level, presence of chronic injury, respiratory efficiency, etc). Would be fascinating to study this more.
But what if by walking faster you improve the common factor? What if it's just that gait speed is a symptom of poor heath, but by attempting to walk faster (maybe even by going for more walks) you actually improve your health?
So the question becomes, to how young a person does this apply? How far back can be extrapolated? Is a slow 40something as meaningful a data point as a slow 70something year old?
I could see this becoming an interesting metric for targeted health care or health advertising, given the relative ease to determine gait speed from live video feeds. "IF gait speed < X, change display ad to 'see an orthopedist'"
My father is nearing 80 and in the last couple of years his gait his stiffened and slowed noticeably. Of course anybody has limited time left at 80, but it's interesting how much older he suddenly looked to an observer. 3 years ago he was confused with men in their 60s.
I think he suddenly felt older to himself as well, this year my parents finally decided to do a top-to-bottom review of their life-insurance, will and other estate issues.
And thank you, colinprince, something that really does stimulate my intellectual curiousity, becoming a rarity on a front page that is starting to re-confirm my intellectual stances.
[+] [-] jmharvey|12 years ago|reply
The interesting part is how strong the result is: "Predicted survival based on age, sex, and gait speed was as accurate as predicted based on age, sex, use of mobility aids, and self-reported function or as age, sex, chronic conditions, smoking history, blood pressure, body mass index, and hospitalization."
That's pretty remarkable. For a given age and sex, all of a person's headline medical information, taken together, is as good an indicator of longevity as their walking speed is.
[+] [-] T-hawk|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekanes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rjknight|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corry|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pyre|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mathattack|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bjhoops1|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harshpotatoes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sailfast|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bane|12 years ago|reply
I think he suddenly felt older to himself as well, this year my parents finally decided to do a top-to-bottom review of their life-insurance, will and other estate issues.
[+] [-] HNJohnC|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|12 years ago|reply
Walking faster now.
[+] [-] ableal|12 years ago|reply
> Walking faster now.
Joke there, I suppose, since the authors did seem to find it applied for diagnosis (poor health slows people down, news at 11 ...).
[+] [-] jb17|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ecopoesis|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dctoedt|12 years ago|reply
(I have this one on a t-shirt.)
[+] [-] rgarrett88|12 years ago|reply
Radio Lab did a segment on how a cities average gait can predict many things about it.