In this Whitehall II accelerometer substudy, clinical walking speed and free-living walking cadence were both associated with all-cause mortality and had similar discriminative ability, suggesting both measures can be used in population-based studies, with the choice depending on research objectives, implementation constraints, and each method's strengths.
Higher clinical walking speed was associated with lower all-cause mortality risk in models adjusted for mortality risk factors.
Higher free-living walking cadence, measured by wrist-worn accelerometer, was associated with lower all-cause mortality risk.
Clinical walking speed and the two free-living cadence metrics had similar discriminative ability for all-cause mortality.
Only clinical walking speed was associated with improved discriminative ability when added to a model including mortality risk factors.
The study sample was a population-based cohort of older adults with mortality follow-up of nearly 12 years.
This study asked whether how fast people walk in a short clinic test predicts death as well as how fast they walk in everyday life, as measured by a wrist-worn activity tracker. It followed 4067 older adults in the UK (average age about 69) for around 12 years. Clinic walking speed came from a short 2.44-meter walk, while everyday walking pace (steps per minute) came from about 9 days of wearing an accelerometer. Both kinds of measures were linked to lower risk of dying from any cause. People with faster clinic walking speeds or faster everyday walking cadence had a lower chance of death over follow-up, even after accounting for factors such as demographics, lifestyle, and health. The three measures (clinic speed, median cadence, and peak cadence) were similarly good at distinguishing who was more or less likely to die. However, only clinic walking speed added to the predictive ability of a model that already included standard risk factors. This research suggests that both clinic-based and wearable-based walking measures can be useful in population studies, and the choice between them may depend on research goals and practical constraints. This is an observational study, so it shows associations rather than proving that walking faster causes longer life.
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Upload Your LabsHaddadj R, Danilevicz I, Rowlands A, van Hees V, Landré B, Le Faucheur A, et al.. (2026). Clinical Walking Speed, Free-Living Walking Cadence, and All-Cause Mortality.. JAMA network open. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.40122