Age- and sex-related distribution of 30-second chair stand test performance across adulthood: Findings from the INSPIRE-T cohort.

BACKGROUND

Physical performance is an important indicator of health status across adulthood. In relatively high-functioning populations, bounded instruments such as the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) may show ceiling effects, limiting discrimination at the upper end of the scale. The 30-second Chair Stand Test (30s-CST) provides a repetition-based measure of lower-extremity performance, but its distribution across the broader adult lifespan, particularly in younger adults, remains insufficiently characterized. This study aimed to characterize age- and sex-related 30s-CST performance across adulthood and to contextualize its distribution using other commonly used performance-based measures.

METHODS

This cross-sectional analysis included 1012 community-dwelling participants aged 20-102 years with available 30s-CST completion status; 268 (26.5%) were unable to perform the conventional 30s-CST.

RESULTS

Among participants with available measurements, 77.2% achieved the maximum SPPB score of 12/12. In addition, 85% completed the 5-STS in <11.59 s, 91% met the sex-specific handgrip strength thresholds, and 85.8% had a usual gait speed ≥1.0 m/s. Among the 744 participants who completed the 30s-CST, the number of repetitions ranged from 4 to 40, with a mean of 15.8 ± 4.7 repetitions.

CONCLUSION

The 30s-CST showed a broad distribution of performance across adulthood among test completers, with generally lower performance in older age groups. In parallel, a large proportion of the cohort achieved the maximum SPPB score. These findings highlight differences in the distribution of these performance-based measures in a relatively high-functioning population.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT04224038 (2019-10-16).