ArticlesGait variability and fall risk in community-living older adults: A 1-year prospective study☆1,☆2,☆3,☆4,☆5,☆6,☆7,☆8
Section snippets
Subjects
This prospective cohort study was conducted at 3 hospital-affiliated geriatric clinics in the greater Boston area. Patients were recruited from the Beth Israel Deaconess Gerontology Group and the Youville Hospital and Rehabilitation Center outpatient clinics. All ambulatory, community-dwelling patients age 70 years and older who presented to 1 of the study sites were eligible for the study. Patients were excluded if they had severe cognitive impairment (unable to follow simple directions), were
Subject characteristics
Fifty-two subjects (36 women, 16 men) were tested and then followed-up for 12 months. There were no deaths and all subjects were in contact with the research staff on a weekly basis throughout the 1-year follow-up period. The mean age of the subjects was 80.3 ± 5.9 years. Mean height and weight were 161 ± 11cm and 66.9 ± 16.6kg, respectively. In general, the subjects were relatively healthy (CCI score, 0.9 ± 1.3), cognitively intact (MMSE score, 27.8 ± 4.1), and able to perform both basic and
Discussion
This quantitative study of gait variability has several key findings. First, among community-living older adults attending an outpatient geriatric clinic, increased gait variability is associated with an increased risk of future falls. In fact, the likelihood of falling was increased about fivefold with only a moderate increase in stride time variability (table 1). Second, in this population of older adults, measures of variability were not only associated with many factors that are intuitively
Conclusion
It has been suggested that increased gait variability is not an inevitable part of the aging process.21, 45 The present findings support the idea that changes in gait variability are likely to reflect underlying disease processes rather than age-related changes. Previous studies have shown that exercise may restore physiologic capacity and reduce gait variability46 and that exercise, Tai Chi, and other interventions may also be effective in minimizing fall risk.7, 8, 10, 11, 47 Although further
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the staff and patients of the geriatric outpatient clinics for their time and effort.
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Cited by (0)
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Supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (grant nos. AG11812, AG14100, AG08812, P41-RR13622), and by the American Federation for Aging Research.
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No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the author(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.
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Reprint requests to Jeffrey M. Hausdorff, PhD, Gerontology Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave, Rm KS-B28, Boston, MA 02215, e-mail: [email protected].
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