Comfortable and maximum walking speed of adults aged 20-79 years: Reference values and determinants

Objectives: to establish reference values for both comfortable and maximum gait speed and to describe the reliability of the gait speed measures and the correlation of selected variables with them. Design: descriptive and cross-sectional. Methods: subjects were 230 healthy volunteers. Gait was timed over a 7.62 m expanse of floor. Actual and height normalized speed were determined. Lower extremity muscle strength was measured with a hand-held dynamometer. Results: mean comfortable gait speed ranged from 127.2 cm/s for women in their seventies to: 146.2 cm/s for men in their forties. Mean maximum gait speed ranged from 174.9 cm/s for women in-their seventies to 253.3 cm/s for men in their twenties. Both gait speed measures were reliable (coefficients greater than or equal to 0.903) and correlated significantly with age (r greater than or equal to-0.210), height (r greater than or equal to 0.220) and the strengths of four measured lower extremity muscle actions (r=0.190-0.500). The muscle action strengths most strongly correlated with gait: speed were nondominant hip abduction (comfortable speed) and knee extension (maximum speed). Conclusions: these normative values should give clinicians a reference against which:patient performance can be compared in a variety of settings. Gait speed can be expected to be reduced in individuals of greater age and of lesser height and lower extremity muscle strength.