Reference values for gait speed in elderly over 65 years of age

Objetive:To provide reference values for four-metre Gait Speed (GS) in people over 65 years of age in the Basque Country and to establish cut-off points for early detection of frailty in clinical practice. Design: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, in which four-metre GS test values were collected from 1,871 adults over 65 years of age, and then the test time (TT) and GS in metres per second were extracted. Results:The cut-off points ranged from 2.99 seconds to 3.95 seconds inn' and 0.89 to 0.70 in GS in females and from 2.66 seconds to 3.85 seconds inn r and 0.99 to 0.73 in GS in males. ANOVA results show that there is a statistically significant difference in TT for age groups (F =41.51 - p<.01) and sex (F = 15.55 - p< .01) and in GS for age (F =39.32 - p<.01) and sex (F = 25.67 - p<.01).The decrease in the two variables, highlighting that the TT parameter increases over the years by 32.97% and the GS value decreases by 21.42% respectively, clinically relevant values. Conclusions:The data show that men achieved better scores in all age ranges than women in the 4-metre GS test. The four-metre GS test is simple and applicable in primary care for the early detection of frailty.