Chest
Original ResearchCOPDDeterminants of Gait Speed in COPD
Section snippets
Subjects
Patients were prospectively recruited from an outpatient pulmonary clinic. Inclusion criteria were (1) a diagnosis of COPD based on the GOLD (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) 2011 guidelines,15 (2) age ≥ 18 years, and (3) ability to complete questionnaires. Patients were excluded if they had an unstable respiratory condition 1 month prior to the study or if they had a walking limitation from a significant orthopedic or neurologic disease (limited by pain, unsteadiness, or
Results
Baseline demographics for the 130 participants enrolled are shown in Table 1. The severity of COPD was moderate to severe, and on the basis of the combined GOLD COPD assessment,30 58 participants (45%) were in group D, 25 (19%) in group C, 16 (12%) in group B, and 31 (24%) in group A. The average gait speeds were 1.11 ± 0.25 m/s for usual pace and 1.63 ± 0.38 m/s for maximal pace. Eighty-five participants were able to wear the activity monitors for the required time. There were no differences
Discussion
The main finding of this study is that gait speed is not independently associated with objectively measured daily physical activity in COPD but is strongly and independently associated with exercise capacity as measured by 6MWT, regardless of pace instructions (maximal or usual gait speed). We found that gait speed may be an easy-to-use and clinically relevant screening tool for poor and very poor exercise capacity in routine COPD office practice. The gait speed benchmarks of 0.9 and 0.8 m/s
Conclusions
Gait speed may be used as a screening measure of poor exercise capacity but is not informative of daily physical activity in COPD. Usual 4-m gait speed is a simple measure with a similar construct as 6MWT and is accurate in detecting poor and very poor 6MWT, which makes it a powerful and informative tool in the routine clinical care of COPD.
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: R. P. B. served as principal investigator, had full access to all of the data in the study, and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. C. K., Z. S. D., N. K. L., and R. P. B. contributed to study design; C. K. and R. P. B. contributed to data collection; C. K., Z. S. D., and R. P. B. contributed to data analysis; P. J. N. contributed to statistical analysis; and C. K., Z. S. D., N. K. L., P. J. N., and R. P. B. contributed
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Correlation of 4-meter gait speed with clinical indicators of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
2021, Respiratory InvestigationFour-meter gait speed predicts daily physical activity in patients with chronic respiratory diseases
2019, Respiratory InvestigationCitation Excerpt :Moreover, by using a ROC curve, we expanded upon past findings by determining the cutoff value for identifying patients with an inactive PAL. Karpman et al. [9] showed that the 4MGS could detect low 6MWD, thus suggesting that the 4MGS is more closely related to exercise capacity than daily physical activity in patients with COPD. Gait speed is a well-established and potentially useful marker of physical performance, mobility, sarcopenia, and frailty among elderly adults [6,28].
Part of this article has been presented in poster form at the American Thoracic Society International Conference, May 17-22, 2013, Philadelphia, PA.
FUNDING/SUPPORT: This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health [Grant 5R01HL094680-05 to Dr Benzo].
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