Predictors of Usual and Peak Gait Speed in Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer’s Dementia

Dereck L. Salisbury, Molly Maxfield, Rodney P. Joseph, David Coon, Jinjiao Wang, Junxin Li, Fang Yu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gait speed significantly affects functional status and health outcomes in older adults. This cross-sectional study evaluated cognitive and physical fitness contributors to usual and peak gait speed in persons with Alzheimer’s dementia. Multiple hierarchal linear regression was used to obtain squared semipartial correlation coefficients (sr2) and effect sizes (Cohen’s ƒ2). Participants (n = 90; 56% male) averaged 77.1 ± 6.6 years of age and 21.8 ± 3.4 on Mini-Mental State Examination. Demographic/clinical, physical fitness, and cognition variables explained 45% and 39% of variance in usual and peak gait speed, respectively. Muscle strength was the only significant contributor to both usual (sr2 = .175; Cohen’s ƒ2 = 0.31; p < .001) and peak gait speed (sr2 = .11; Cohen’s ƒ2 = 0.18; p < .001). Women who were “slow” walkers (usual gait speed <1.0 m/s) had significantly lower cardiorespiratory fitness and executive functioning compared with “fast” walkers. In conclusion, improving muscle strength may modify gait and downstream health outcomes in Alzheimer’s dementia.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)930-939
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Aging and Physical Activity
Volume31
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Human Kinetics Publishers Inc.. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Alzheimer disease
  • cognition
  • physical fitness

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article

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