Abstract

VARELA PINEDO, Luis Fernando; ORTIZ SAAVEDRA, Pedro José  and  CHAVEZ JIMENO, Helver Alejandro. Gait Speed in community dwelling elderly people in Lima, Peru.. Rev Med Hered [online]. 2009, vol.20, n.3, pp.133-138. ISSN 1018-130X.

Objective: To know the community dwelling elderly gait sped in Lima Metropolitana and the slow gait speed associated factors. Material and methods: Transversal and descriptive study of a probabilistic, multiphase and cluster stratified sample of 246 non institutionalized persons over 60 years of the six areas in Lima Metropolitana. Gait speed was calculated as the time to walk a distance of eight meters of ten in total and the Fried´s criteria were used to determine frailty status. Results: Mean gait speed was 0.92 ± 0.24 m/s with a percentile distribution between 0.77 m/s (p25) and 1.06 m/s (p75). A slow gait speed was associated with older age (0.95 ± 0.24 m/s in persons of 60 to 69 years vs. 0.84 ± 0,25 m/s in persons older than 80 years, p<0,05), female sex (0,86 ± 0,22 m/s vs. 1,01 ± 0,23 m/s in male sex, p<0.01), and the presence of frailty (0.67 ± 0.24 m/s vs. 1,04 ± 0,22 m/s in non frail persons, p<0.01). Conclusions: The mean gait speed was 0.92 ± 0.24 m/s. We found an statistic association between a slow gait speed and older age, female sex and the presence of frailty. (Rev Med Hered 2009;20:133-138).

Keywords : Gait speed; elderly; community.

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