Older adults must hurry at pedestrian lights! A cross-sectional analysis of preferred and fast walking speed under single- and dual-task conditions

Abstract

Slow walking speed is strongly associated with adverse health outcomes, including cognitive impairment, in the older population. Moreover, adequate walking speed is crucial to maintain older pedestrians’ mobility and safety in urban areas. This study aimed to identify the proportion of Swiss older adults that didn’t reach 1.2 m/s, which reflects the requirements to cross streets within the green–yellow phase of pedestrian lights, when walking fast under cognitive challenge. A convenience sample, including 120 older women (65%) and men, was recruited from the community (88%) and from senior residences and divided into groups of 70–79 years (n = 59, 74.8 ± 0.4 y; mean ± SD) and ≥80 years (n = 61, 85.5 ± 0.5 y). Steady state walking speed was assessed under single- and dual-task conditions at preferred and fast walking speed. Additionally, functional lower extremity strength (5-chair-rises test), subjective health rating, and retrospective estimates of fall frequency were recorded. Results showed that 35.6% of the younger and 73.8% of the older participants were not able to walk faster than 1.2 m/s under the fast dual-task walking condition. Fast dual-task walking speed was higher compared to the preferred speed single- and dual-task conditions (all p < .05, r = .31 to .48). Average preferred single-task walking speed was 1.19 ± 0.24 m/s (70–79 y) and 0.94 ± 0.27 m/s (≥80 y), respectively, and correlated with performance in the 5-chair-rises test (rs = −.49, p < .001), subjective health (τ = .27, p < .001), and fall frequency (τ = −.23, p = .002). We conclude that the fitness status of many older people is inadequate to safely cross streets at pedestrian lights and maintain mobility in the community’s daily life in urban areas. Consequently, training measures to improve the older population’s cognitive and physical fitness should be promoted to enhance walking speed and safety of older pedestrians.

Mobility in Older Community-Dwelling Persons: A Narrative Review

“…An Irish TILDA study demonstrated that one third of the population walked slower than the required 1.2 m/s (Donoghue et al, 2017) putting these older persons at stress when crossing a street. Eggenberger et al (2017) presented similar findings in their study by showing that 30% of people in the age group 70-79 years and 73% of persons aged 80 years and older were not able to reach the 1.2 m/s threshold.…”

“…Fast gait speed is needed in daily life, e.g., in a timely pedestrian crossing. A walking speed of about >1.2 m/s is needed to cross safely during the green signal lights (Donoghue et al, 2016;Eggenberger et al, 2017). An Irish TILDA study demonstrated that one third of the population walked slower than the required 1.2 m/s (Donoghue et al, 2017) putting these older persons at stress when crossing a street.…”

Abnormal gait pattern emerges during curved trajectories in high-functioning Parkinsonian patients walking in line at normal speed

“…From a large convenience sample of healthy subjects (HS), after careful collection of medical history and considering the same exclusion criteria as for the Parkinsonian patients, we recruited eighteen subjects who matched our patients for age and gender and for the self-selected walking speed along the linear trajectory. We did not exclude subjects exhibiting self-selected walking speed in the lower rank of published ranges of normality for an elderly population [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ]. Table 1 shows the individual values of walking speed in the linear trajectory for the two cohorts.…”

Wearable Cane and App System for Improving Mobility in Toddlers/Pre-schoolers With Visual Impairment

“…They found toddlers' average acceleration velocity was equivalent to 3.1 m/s² compared to college-aged adults 1.9 m/s². The minimal recommended walking speed to cross streets within the green-yellow phase of pedestrian lights is only 1.2 m/s 2 (Eggenberger et al, 2017). This suggests that adult long cane users need between one and two cane swipes per second to achieve a syncopated cane rhythm.…”