Real-world walking cadence in people with COPD
Laura Delgado‐Ortiz, Saverio Ranciati, Ane Arbillaga‐Etxarri, Eva Balcells, Joren Buekers, Heleen Demeyer, Anja Frei, Elena Gimeno‐Santos, Nicholas S Hopkinson, Corina de Jong, Niklas Karlsson, Zafeiris Louvaris, Luca Palmerini, Michael I. Polkey, Milo A. Puhan, Roberto Rabinovich, Diego A. Rodríguez, Robert Rodriguez-Roisín, Pere Torán‐Monserrat, Ioannis Vogiatzis, Henrik Watz, Thierry Troosters, Judith García‐Aymerich
Abstract
Introduction The clinical validity of real-world walking cadence in people with COPD is unsettled. Our objective was to assess the levels, variability and association with clinically relevant COPD characteristics and outcomes of real-world walking cadence. Methods We assessed walking cadence (steps per minute during walking bouts longer than 10 s) from 7 days’ accelerometer data in 593 individuals with COPD from five European countries, and clinical and functional characteristics from validated questionnaires and standardised tests. Severe exacerbations during a 12-month follow-up were recorded from patient reports and medical registries. Results Participants were mostly male (80%) and had mean± sd age of 68±8 years, post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) of 57±19% predicted and walked 6880±3926 steps·day −1 . Mean walking cadence was 88±9 steps·min −1 , followed a normal distribution and was highly stable within-person (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.92, 95% CI 0.90–0.93). After adjusting for age, sex, height and number of walking bouts in fractional polynomial or linear regressions, walking cadence was positively associated with FEV 1, 6-min walk distance, physical activity (steps·day −1 , time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, vector magnitude units, walking time, intensity during locomotion), physical activity experience and health-related quality of life and negatively associated with breathlessness and depression (all p<0.05). These associations remained after further adjustment for daily steps. In negative binomial regression adjusted for multiple confounders, walking cadence related to lower number of severe exacerbations during follow-up (incidence rate ratio 0.94 per step·min −1 , 95% CI 0.91–0.99, p=0.009). Conclusions Higher real-world walking cadence is associated with better COPD status and lower severe exacerbations risk, which makes it attractive as a future prognostic marker and clinical outcome.