Slow Walkers At Increased Risk of Death by Heart Disease

Alexis Elbaz, from Inserm (France), and colleagues embarked on a study to establish the relationship between slow walking speed and the risk of death in older people.  Designed as a five-year long study and part of Inserm's ongoing Three City Study, involving over 3,200 generally healthy men and women, ages 65 to 85 years, living in three French cities, the researchers conducted an initial survey of the participants’ health statuses and charted their walking speeds.  Over the next five years, 209 of the participants died, resulting in an overall death rate of nearly 7%.  The team found that the death rate among the slowest-walking one-third of participants, that is - those men who walked at the equivalent of about 3.4 miles per hour or slower and women who walked at about 3 miles per hour or slower, was 44% higher than that among the two-thirds of participants who had walked faster.  Additionally, death from heart attack, stroke, and related causes was 2.9 times more common among the slowest one-third of participants than among the participants who had walked faster.  The increase in death from heart disease was seen in both men and women and was unrelated to the ages of participants or how physically active they were. The researchers conclude that: “Slow walking speed in older people is strongly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.”