Associations Between Mobility Capacity and Walking Performance in Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Outdoor Walking Limitations.

Purpose: To determine relationships between mobility capacity and walking performance in older adults with outdoor walking limitations. Method: This cross-sectional study involved secondary analysis of baseline data from the Getting Older Adults Outdoors (GO-OUT) study (115 females, 53 males; mean age of 74.6 [SD 7.0] years). Mobility capacity tests included 6-minute walk test (6MWT), 10-metre walk test (10MWT), 30-second sit-to-stand (30sSTS), and Mini-BESTest. Walking performance included peak 30-minute cadence, time walked in bouts, and steps per day (accelerometry). Multiple linear regression was used to determine associations between capacity and performance, adjusted for age, sex, and comorbidity.

Results

Individual measures of mobility capacity were significantly associated with all measures of walking performance, explaining variances of 24%-28% in peak 30-minute cadence, 9%-14% in time walked in bouts, and 18%-22% in steps per day. In combined models, 6MWT and 30sSTS were significantly associated with peak 30-minute cadence (R 2 = 0.37), 10MWT with time walked in bouts (R 2 = 0.15), and 30sSTS with steps per day (R 2 = 0.25).

Conclusions

Relationships between mobility capacity and walking performance vary depending on chosen measure of performance. Lower extremity muscle endurance, muscle strength, cardiovascular capacity, and balance are important for walking in everyday life.