Gait speed
DEGanggeschwindigkeit
Gait speed, usually measured over a 4- or 6-meter walk at a comfortable pace, is one of the strongest and cheapest functional markers of whole-body aging. A single number rolls together your muscle strength, balance, heart-and-lung capacity, and nervous-system health. A large meta-analysis (Studenski et al., JAMA 2011, over 34,000 people) found that each 0.1 m/s faster gait went with a 12% lower death risk. Gait speed predicted survival about as well as age, sex, or BMI. Slow walking (usually under 0.8 m/s) predicts dementia, frailty, falls, hospitalization, and death, independent of leg strength alone, because coordinated walking taxes so many systems. In clinical geroscience, gait speed is part of the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). It works as both a diagnostic marker of physical frailty and a sensitive, modifiable outcome for exercise and nutrition trials.
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