Geriatrics & Gerontology International · Oct 15, 2025
Associations of Daily Step Goals With Prefrailty and Frailty in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
By Mochimaru K, Tanabe N, Shiraishi Y et al.
AIM: Maintaining physical activity and prevention of frailty is a main goal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) management. We investigated whether setting a daily step goal, rather than simply owning a pedometer, is associated with a lower incidence of prefrailty/frailty in patients with COPD. METHODS: This cross-sectional study prospectively enrolled patients with stable COPD and examined their frailty status (robust, prefrail, and frail) using the Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study criteria (J-CHS). All participants completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding ownership of consumer-grade pedometers or smartphone apps (pedometer users/nonusers) and daily step goals to evaluate everyday walking behavior and wore a medical-grade accelerometer for seven consecutive days to obtain objective daily step counts. RESULTS: A total of 153 patients were included and classified into three groups: pedometer users with and without a daily step goal and nonusers (n = 62, 11 and 80, respectively). The prevalence of prefrailty/frailty and the J-CHS low-activity domain was lower in pedometer users with a daily step goal than those without a goal (39% vs. 82%, and 13% vs. 64%, respectively). In multivariable models, the pedometer users with a daily step goal were prefrail/frail less likely than the pedometer users without a goal after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking history, lung function, or 6-min walk distance. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with stable COPD, the daily use of pedometers with a daily step goal may be associated with a lower prevalence of frailty. These findings underscore the importance of goal-oriented strategies in COPD management.