Gait & Posture · Aug 5, 2025

Walking faster or more is associated with better physical fitness among community-dwelling older Chinese women: A cross-sectional study

By He Q, Wu Q, Wu S et al.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to examine the association between the daily steps, step intensity and physical fitness (PF) of community-dwelling older Chinese women. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were derived from baseline survey of the Physical Activity and Health in Older Women Study. Participants' daily steps and intensity were objectively measured using wGT3X-BT accelerometers. PF levels was determined through the National Physical Fitness Test (Elderly Section). To evaluate the associations of step counts and intensity with PF, logistic regression analyses were performed. Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was employed to determine the optimal cut-off values of step counts and intensity for discriminating high PF levels. RESULTS: A total of 1122 participants were included in this study with a mean age of 64.9 ± 2.8 years. Logistic regression results showed that an increase of 1000 steps/day in incidental, purposeful, and moderate-vigorous steps, and an increase of 10 steps/min in peak cadence (defined as the highest average step rate over 1/5/10/30/60 min for Peak-1/5/10/30/60, respectively), were significantly associated with higher PF levels (P < 0.05). ROC analysis results showed that the AUC values for total daily steps, incidental steps, purposeful steps, and moderate-vigorous intensity steps are 0.62, 0.60, 0.60, and 0.67, respectively. In addition, the corresponding optimal cut-off values for distinguishing between high and low PF are 6882 steps/day, 3596 steps/day, 4395 steps/day, and 1537 steps/day, respectively. The AUC values for Peak-1, Peak-5, Peak-10, Peak-30, and Peak-60 are 0.61, 0.62, 0.62, 0.61 and 0.61, respectively. The areas under the curves are all greater than or equal to 0.60. In addition, the corresponding optimal cut-off values for distinguishing high vs. low PF are 116 steps/min, 108 steps/min, 101 steps/min, 82 steps/min, and 67 steps/min, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Both higher step intensity and greater step accumulation were associated with better physical fitness in older women.

doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2025.07.330PubMed 40763434Populations