Intra-day variation in daily outdoor walking speed among community-dwelling older adults

Abstract Background Walking speed is an important measure associated with health outcomes in older individuals, such as dependency and death. This study aimed to examine whether the walking speed of community-dwelling older adults varies between time periods within a day, as measured outdoors in daily life. We aimed to determine the types of walking speed variations and examine the factors associated with them. Methods Daily life outdoor walking speed was measured in 92 participants (average age 71.9 years±5.64) using a GPS smartphone app for 1 month. Average walking speeds for five time periods were analyzed with a linear mixed model. Intra-day walking speed variation patterns were classified by latent class analysis. Factors associated with the class were identified by logistic regression analysis. Results A statistically significant difference in average walking speed was found between early morning (1.33 m/s), and afternoon (1.27 m/s) and evening (1.26 m/s) (p