title: Usual walking speed and all-cause mortality risk in older people: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between slow usual walking speed and all-cause mortality risk in older people by conducting a meta-analysis. We searched through the Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane Library database up to March 2015. Only prospective observational studies that investigating the usual walking speed and all-cause mortality risk in older adulthood approaching age 65 years or more were included. Walking speed should be specifically assessed as a single-item tool over a short distance. Pooled adjusted risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were computed for the lowest versus the highest usual walking speed category. A total of 9 studies involving 12,901 participants were included. Meta-analysis with random effect model showed that the pooled adjusted RR of all-cause mortality was 1.89 (95% CI 1.46-2.46) comparing the lowest to the highest usual walk speed. Subgroup analyses indicated that risk of all-cause mortality for slow usual walking speed appeared to be not significant among women (RR 1.45; 95% CI 0.95-2.20). Slow usual walking speed is an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in men but not in women among older adulthood approaching age 65 years or more.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China. Electronic address: xinhuahu@126.com.
authors.forename: Xinhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Yichuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Xiuqi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Junpeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D009026:Mortality; D016138:Walking
keywords: All-cause mortality; Meta-analysis; Usual walking speed