Walking at work: Maximum gait speed is related to work ability in hospital nursing staff

Objectives Like the concept of work ability in occupational health, gait speed is a measure of general fitness and can predict functional decline and morbidity. This is especially important when our care‐takers, i.e. nurses, show decline in fitness and become care‐receivers. The study aims to describe the demographics of hospital nurses in the context of gait speed and work ability as well as to determine the association between them. Methods Three‐hundred and twelve inpatient nurses and nursing assistants were sampled from a level 1 trauma and teaching hospital from several service lines and acuity levels. Spearman correlation tests were utilized to determine the relationship of gait speed and ratings of item 1 on the Work Ability Index (WAI) as well as Cochran‐Armitage test for linear trend of gait speed. Results Maximum gait speed has a significant positive association with work ability with a Rho coefficient of 0.217 (P