Researchers have found a connection between walking speed and brain health.
As part of a long-term study involving 904 people, scientists found that slower walkers showed signs of “accelerated ageing” on a 19-measure scale.
Among the participants – all of whom were 45 years old – the slower walkers were found to have worse lungs, teeth, immune systems and general body condition.
"The thing that's really striking is that this is in 45-year-old people, not the geriatric patients who are usually assessed with such measures," said lead researcher Line JH Rasmussen, a post-doctoral researcher in the Duke University department of psychology & neuroscience.
The scientists also found that the participants’ walking speed was predicted by their IQ, language ability, frustration tolerance and motor skills at the age of three.
"Doctors know that slow walkers in their seventies and eighties tend to die sooner than fast walkers their same age," said senior author Terrie E. Moffitt, the Nannerl O Keohane University professor of psychology at Duke University.
"But this study covered the period from the preschool years to midlife, and found that a slow walk is a problem sign decades before old age."
The 904 participants – all of whom were born in Dunedin, New Zealand – have been tested throughout their lives.
The study appears in JAMA Network Open.
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