Tag: walking

Categories : RheumatologyTags :

Small Changes in Walking Technique May Help Treat Knee Osteoarthritis

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Gait analysis and pain measures show that subtly adjusting the angle of the foot during walking may reduce knee pain caused by osteoarthritis, an approach which may also slow progression of the incurable condition.

Led by a team of researchers at NYU Langone Health, the University of Utah, and Stanford University, a new study explored whether changing the way patients position their feet when walking could lessen extra loading, helping to treat the disease.

For the investigation, the scientists tested this intervention in 68 men and women with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis and then used advanced MRI scans to track how well it worked.

The results suggest that those trained to angle their feet slightly inward or outward from their natural alignment experienced slower cartilage degeneration in the inner part of their knee compared with those who were encouraged to walk more frequently without changing their foot position. The study is reported online in The Lancet Rheumatology.

“Although our results will have to be confirmed in future studies, they raise the possibility that the new, noninvasive treatment could help delay surgery,” said study co-lead author Valentina Mazzoli, PhD.

Dr. Mazzoli, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, notes that the earlier patients receive a knee replacement, the more likely they are to require additional procedures in the future.

The findings also revealed that those who adjusted their foot angle reduced their pain score by 2.5 points on a 10-point scale, an effect equivalent to that of over-the-counter pain medications. By contrast, those who did not change their gait reduced their pain scores by little more than a point.

“Altogether, our findings suggest that helping patients find their best foot angle to reduce stress on their knees may offer an easy and fairly inexpensive way to address early-stage osteoarthritis,” added Dr. Mazzoli.

About one in seven Americans have some form of osteoarthritis, commonly in the inner side of the knee, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A leading cause of disability, the disease is often managed with pharmaceutical pain relievers, physical therapy, and in the most severe cases, knee-replacement surgery. Experts believe that excess loading can over time contribute to the condition.

Past research has offered little evidence that changes in gait can effectively reduce knee pain caused by osteoarthritis, says Dr. Mazzoli. Some previous trials trained all participants to adopt the same foot angle and found no relief, while others did not compare the intervention to a control group or only followed the participants for a month.

The new study is the first to show that tailoring each patient’s foot angle to their unique walking pattern can alleviate the disease’s symptoms in the long term and may slow cartilage breakdown, the authors say.

Dr Mazzoli adds that this technique may have a significant advantage over pharmaceutical painkillers. These drugs, she says, do not address the underlying disease and can cause liver and kidney damage, stomach ulcers, and other unwanted side effects when taken for long periods.

For the study, the research team recorded the participants walking on a treadmill at a specialized gait-assessment laboratory. A computer program simulated their walking patterns and calculated the maximum loading that occurred in the inner side of their knees. Next, the team generated computer models of four new foot positions—angled inward or outward by either 5 or 10 degrees—and estimated which option reduced loading the most.

The patients were then randomly divided into two groups. Half were trained in six sessions to walk with their ideal angle, while the other half were instructed to continue walking naturally. Pain scores and MRI scans were taken at the beginning of the study period and one year after the intervention.

Study findings showed those who adjusted their gait reduced the maximum loading in the knees by 4 percent, while those who kept their normal walking pattern increased their loading by more than 3 percent.

“These results highlight the importance of personalizing treatment instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to osteoarthritis,” said Dr. Mazzoli. “While this strategy may sound challenging, recent advances in detecting the motion of different body parts using artificial intelligence may make it easier and faster than ever before.”

While the authors relied on a specialized laboratory for the new study, AI software that estimates joint loading using smartphone videos is now available and can allow clinicians to perform a gait analysis in the clinic.

The researchers next plan to test whether these tools can indeed identify the most effective walking method for osteoarthritis patients, says Dr. Mazzoli. They also plan to expand their study to people with obesity.

Source: NYU Langone Health

Categories : ExerciseTags :

Just 7000 Steps a Day Still Lead to Health Benefits

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A major new study led by the University of Sydney suggests that walking 7000 steps a day offers similar health benefits across several outcomes as walking 10 000. Led by Professor Melody Ding from the School of Public Health, the study was published in The Lancet Public Health and analysed data from 57 studies from 2014 to 2025 that were conducted in more than ten countries including Australia, USA, UK and Japan.

The largest and most comprehensive review to date, the researchers examined the impact that different daily step counts have on the chance of dying from cardiovascular disease and cancer, and developing diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, dementia and depression. Professor Melody Ding says the findings offer a more achievable benchmark for people who struggle to meet traditional exercise guidelines. 

“Aiming for 7000 steps is a realistic goal based on our findings, which assessed health outcomes in a range of areas that hadn’t been looked at before,” said Professor Ding.

“However, for those who cannot yet achieve 7000 steps a day, even small increases in step counts, such as increasing from 2000 to 4000 steps a day, are associated with significant health gain.

“We know daily step count is linked to living longer, but we now also have evidence that walking at least 7000 steps a day can significantly improve eight major health outcomes – including reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and depressive symptoms.”

“Our research helps to shift the focus from perfection to progress. Even small increases in daily movement can lead to meaningful health improvements.”

Professor Melody Ding

Health benefits at different step counts

The researchers looked at studies in which participants wore step counting devices, such as pedometers, accelerometers and fitness trackers, to track their daily step counts. Starting at 2000 steps, experts compared the health outcomes of people walking more steps a day at 1000 step increments to see whether there was any difference in the risk of early death or other major diseases. 

When compared with 2000 steps a day, researchers found that: 

  • Walking 7000 steps a day reduced the risk of death by 47%, which was almost identical to the benefit seen at walking 10 000 steps per day. 
  • Dementia risk dropped by 38% from walking 7000 steps a day, with only a 7 percent extra reduction at 10 000 steps. 
  • Risk of type 2 diabetes fell by 22 percent from walking 10,000 steps a day and reduced to 27 percent at 12,000 steps.
  • Significant health improvements were seen when people increased their average daily steps from 2000 to between 5000 and 7000 steps. 

“For people who are already active, 10,000 steps a day is great,” said Dr Katherine Owen, co-author and chief analyst of the study from the School of Public Health. “But beyond 7000 steps, the extra benefits for most of the health outcomes we looked at were modest.”

The researchers are working with the Australian government to use the evidence from this study to inform future updates to physical activity guidelines.

“Our research helps to shift the focus from perfection to progress. Even small increases in daily movement can lead to meaningful health improvements,” said Professor Ding. 

Experts are calling for future studies to explore how step goals should vary based on age, health status and region, and to include diverse populations and longer-term data to strengthen the evidence. Professor Ding says this kind of detail is rare and will be useful for health practitioners when tailoring advice for patients.

Source: The University of Sydney

Categories : ExerciseTags :

Yoga, Tai Chi, Walking and Jogging Are Best Exercises for Insomnia

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Findings back use of exercise as primary treatment strategy for poor sleep, say researchers

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Yoga, Tai Chi, walking and jogging may be the best forms of exercise to improve sleep quality and ease insomnia, suggest the findings of a comparative pooled data analysis published in the online journal BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.

The findings back the use of exercise as a primary treatment strategy for poor sleep patterns, say the researchers.

Characterised by difficulties falling and staying asleep, and early morning awakening, the prevalence of insomnia ranges from 4-22%, note the researchers. It is associated with heightened risks of various mental and physical health conditions, including dementia and cardiovascular disease.

Drug treatments for insomnia are not without their side effects, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), while effective, isn’t always available due to the shortage of trained therapists, explain the researchers.

An emerging body of research suggests that exercise is helpful, but current guidelines don’t specify which types of exercise might be most beneficial. The researchers therefore set out to plug this knowledge gap, with a view to informing clinical practice and helping patients choose the most appropriate exercise for managing their insomnia.

They scoured research databases looking for relevant randomised clinical trials published up to April 2025 and included 22 in a network meta analysis—a statistical technique used to simultaneously compare multiple interventions.

The trials involved 1348 participants and 13 different treatment approaches to ease insomnia, seven of which were exercise based: yoga; Tai Chi; walking or jogging; aerobic plus strength exercise; strength training alone; aerobic exercise combined with therapy; and mixed aerobic exercises. These programmes ranged from 4 up to 26 weeks in length.

The other approaches included CBT; sleep hygiene; Ayurveda; acupuncture/massage; nothing; and existing treatment, such as usual care and/or lifestyle changes, the durations of which ranged from 6 to 26 weeks.

Validated scoring systems for sleep quality and insomnia severity—PSQI and the ISI45—as well as subjective and objective measures of total sleep time, sleep efficiency (percentage of time spent asleep while in bed), number of awakenings after going to sleep, and time taken to fall asleep (sleep latency) were used to assess sleep patterns.

Compared with existing treatment, CBT is likely to result in a large increase in total sleep time based on subjective sleep diary data. It may also improve sleep efficiency, and shorten the amount of time spent awake after falling asleep as well as sleep latency, with sustained improvements, the findings suggest.

But some of the exercise-based interventions also seemed to be effective, when compared with existing treatment.

Yoga likely results in a large increase in total sleep time of nearly 2 hours and may improve sleep efficiency by nearly 15%. It may also reduce the amount of time spent awake after falling asleep by nearly an hour, and shorten sleep latency by around half an hour.

Walking or jogging may result in a large reduction in insomnia severity of nearly 10 points, while Tai Chi may reduce poor sleep quality scores by more than 4 points, increase total sleep time by more than 50 minutes, and reduce time spent awake after falling asleep by over half an hour. It may also shorten sleep latency by around 25 minutes.

Further in-depth analyses revealed that Tai Chi performed significantly better on all subjectively and objectively assessed outcomes than existing treatments for up to 2 years.

There are potentially plausible biological explanations for the findings, say the researchers.

With its focus on body awareness, controlled breathing, and attentional training, yoga may alter brain activity, thereby alleviating anxiety and depressive symptoms which often interfere with a good night’s sleep, they suggest.

Tai Chi emphasises breath control and physical relaxation and has been shown to decrease  sympathetic nervous system activity, dampening down hyperarousal, they add. And its combination of meditative movement and mindfulness may promote emotional regulation, deactivate ‘mental chatter’, and reduce anxiety. It may also help to curb the production of inflammatory chemicals over longer periods, they suggest.

Walking or jogging may improve sleep by increasing energy expenditure, curbing cortisol production, improving emotional regulation, boosting secretion of the sleep hormone melatonin, and enhancing the amount of deep sleep, they continue.

The researchers acknowledge that 15 (68%) of the included trials contained design and methodological flaws. And there were no standardised, quantifiable metrics for the frequency or intensity of exercise interventions, while the sample sizes of some of the studies were small.

Nevertheless, they conclude: “The findings of this study further underscore the therapeutic potential of exercise interventions in the treatment of insomnia, suggesting that their role may extend beyond adjunctive support to serve as viable primary treatment options.

“Although current clinical guidelines make only limited mention of exercise, this study provides relatively comprehensive comparative evidence that may inform the development of more specific and actionable clinical recommendations.

“Given the advantages of exercise modalities such as yoga, Tai Chi, and walking or jogging—including low cost, minimal side effects, and high accessibility—these interventions are well-suited for integration into primary care and community health programmes.”

And there may well be one type of exercise that is best suited to easing a particular symptom of insomnia, they suggest, which further research may clarify.

Source: BMJ Group

Categories : PaediatricsTags :

Scientists Discover the Genes that Influence When Babies Start Walking

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In the first study of its kind, scientists analysed the genetic information of more than 70 000 infants. They identified 11 genetic markers influencing when babies start walking, thus offering multiple targets for future in-depth biological investigation. 

In a paper published in Nature Human Behaviour, the study found that genetics accounts for about a quarter of the differences in when children take their first steps.

For years, researchers knew that environmental factors could influence when babies begin to walk, but this new finding shows that genetics also has a major impact. It suggests that, just like with other traits such as height, some children may naturally start walking earlier or later because of their genetic propensity. 

Professor Angelica Ronald, Professor of Psychology and Genetics, said: “Most babies take their first step sometime between ages 8 months and 24 months, so it is a wide window in which this exciting milestone happens. It is a big moment for both parents and baby; it symbolises a new phase in a child’s life.”

Dr Anna Gui, an author of the study and a researcher at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Birkbeck, University of London said: “Until now, we didn’t understand what causes the wide differences between children in when they take their first step. Parents might often worry that walking early or late is a bad sign or that they have done something wrong. We see that genetics play a considerable role in influencing the timing of this milestone.“

Walking isn’t just a key milestone in the development of a child, but it is connected in terms of genetic influences with many other important aspects of human development. The study found that the genetic factors influencing when children take their first step are partly the same genetic factors that influence brain development including the amount of folding and ridges in the outer surface of the brain (the “cortex”). Moreover, walking later within the typical range was linked genetically with less chance of developing ADHD. Finally, the study showed that relatively later onset of walking was influenced by some of the same genes involved in higher educational attainment.  

Prof Ronald added: “It is exciting to be able to discover the genes that influence when children learn to walk. Starting to walk independently is a major milestone for young children. We hope these new genetic findings can advance fundamental understanding about the causes of walking and be used to better support children with motor disorders and learning disabilities.”

She added that parents should still see a GP if there was concern, there is a lot of variety in when children take their first unaided step,

Led by scientists in the UK, the study was made possible through a large collaboration with scientists in the UK, Netherlands and Norway, and through UK and international funding including from the Simons Foundation for Autism Research Initiative.  

Categories : Surgeries & ProceduresTags :

Altered Gait after ACL Surgery Adds to More Knee Problems

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For people with an injured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee, surgical ACL reconstruction (ACLR) is an effective treatment for restoring joint stability, however, many treated patients still develop additional long-term knee problems, such as knee osteoarthritis. New research published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research reveals that individuals exhibit an altered gait after ACLR, which can contribute to these problems.

For the study, investigators compared gait biomechanics between the ACLR and uninjured limbs of 58 patients who underwent ACLR and 58 uninjured control individuals.

Although gait biomechanics became more symmetrical in patients with ACLR over the first 12 months post‐ACLR, the ACLR and uninvolved limbs demonstrated persistent aberrant gait biomechanics compared with the uninjured control individuals.

“A persistent aberrant gait pattern following ACLR, like that observed in our study, can induce joint loads that may contribute to further long-term knee joint problems,” said corresponding author Christin Büttner, MS, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Implementing early rehabilitative measures to normalise gait following ACLR could help to maintain long-term knee joint health in both the injured and uninjured limb.”

Source: Wiley

Categories : Ageing ExerciseTags :

Many Could Easily Add Five Years to Their Lifespan

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If everyone was as active as the top 25% of the population, individuals over the age of 40 could add five years to their life, according to a new study led by Griffith University researchers. 

Physical activity has long been known to be good for health, however estimates have varied regarding how much benefit could be gained from a defined amount of activity, both for individuals and for populations. 

This latest study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, used US-based accelerometer data to gain an accurate view of a population’s physical activity levels instead of relying on survey responses as per other studies, and found the benefits were around twice as strong as previous estimates.  

It found the most active quarter of people in the community had a 73% lower risk of death than their least active counterparts. For that least active quartile, a single one-hour walk could potentially return a benefit of around six additional hours of life.  

Lead researcher Professor Lennert Veerman said this cohort had the greatest potential for health gains.  

“If you’re already very active or in that top quartile, an extra hour’s walk may not make much difference as you’ve, in a sense, already ‘maxed out’ your benefit,” he said.   

“If the least active quartile of the population over age 40 were to increase their activity level to that of the most active quartile however, they might live, on average, about 11 years longer.

“This is not an unreasonable prospect, as 25 per cent of the population is already doing it.  It can be any type of exercise but would roughly be the equivalent of just under three hours of walking per day.” 

The research team suggested low levels of physical activity could even rival the negative effects of smoking, with other research finding each cigarette could take 11 minutes from a smoker’s life.  

By extension, a more active lifestyle could also offer protective effects against heart disease, stroke, certain cancers and other chronic illnesses, with the study’s findings highlighting a need for national physical activity guidelines to be revisited using these methods.  

Dr Veerman said physical activity had been vastly underestimated in its capacity to improve health outcomes, suggesting even modest increases in movement could lead to significant life-extension benefits.  

“If there’s something you could do to more than halve your risk of death, physical activity is enormously powerful,” he said.  

“If we could increase investment in promoting physical activity and creating living environments that promote it such as walkable or cyclable neighbourhoods and convenient, affordable public transport systems, we could not only increase longevity but also reduce pressure on our health systems and the environment.”  

Source: Griffith University

Categories : Neurology PaediatricsTags :

Botox Could Make Walking Easier in Children with Cerebral Palsy

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A recent randomised clinical trial published in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology assessed whether injections of botulinumtoxin-A in calf muscles benefit children with cerebral palsy.

“We hypothesised that injections with botulinumtoxin-A in the calf muscles would make walking easier, caused by improved ankle joint functioning following spasticity reduction,” the authors wrote.

In the trial, one botulinumtoxin-A treatment was not superior to placebo in making walking easier (measured as a reduction in energy cost or improved walking capacity); however, there was some evidence of a delayed improvement in energy cost. Moreover, there was some evidence of a decrease in calf pain intensity. No serious adverse events related to botulinumtoxin-A treatment were recorded.

Source: Wiley

Categories : Exercise Pain ManagementTags :

Walking is Highly Effective for Stopping Low Back Pain from Returning

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New research from Macquarie University’s Spinal Pain Research Group shows that walking has the potential to change the way low back pain is managed, making effective interventions accessible to more people than ever before. The results of the trial, which combined walking with education, are published in The Lancet.

About 800 million people worldwide have low back pain, which is a leading cause of disability and reduced quality of life. Recurrences of low back pain are very common, with seven in 10 people who recover from an episode going on to have a recurrence within a year.

Professor of Physiotherapy Mark Hancock and his research team have been investigating ways to shift the emphasis from treatment to prevention to improve the management of back pain, an approach that empowers individuals to manage their own health and reduces the cost to society and the healthcare system.

Far from the bed rest recommended for back pain in the past, current best practice includes the combination of exercise and education, both to treat current pain and to prevent future episodes.

While beneficial, some forms of exercise are not accessible or affordable to many people due to their high cost, complexity and need for supervision.

A simpler, more accessible method

The world-first WalkBack trial examined whether a programme of walking combined with education could be effective in preventing recurrences of low back pain.

The trial followed 701 adults who had recently recovered from an episode of low back pain, randomly allocating participants to either an individualised walking program facilitated by a physiotherapist and six education sessions across six months, or to a no-intervention control group.

The participants’ progress was then followed for between one and three years to collect information about any new recurrences of low back pain they experienced.

The researchers’ primary aim was to compare the two groups for the number of days before participants experienced a recurrence of back pain that impacted daily activities or required care from a healthcare provider.

They also evaluated the cost effectiveness of the intervention, including costs related to work absenteeism and healthcare services.

Longer pain-free periods

The paper’s senior author, Professor Hancock, says what they discovered could have a profound impact on how low back pain is managed.

“The intervention group had fewer occurrences of activity-limiting pain compared to the control group, and a longer average period before they had a recurrence, with a median of 208 days compared to 112 days,” Professor Hancock says. “The risk of having a recurrence that required seeking care was nearly halved in those in the intervention group.

“Walking is a low-cost, widely accessible and simple exercise that almost anyone can engage in, regardless of age, geographic location or socio-economic status.

“We don’t know exactly why walking is so good for preventing back pain, but it is likely to include the combination of gentle oscillatory movements, loading and strengthening the spinal structures and muscles, relaxation and stress relief, and the release of ‘feel-good’ endorphins.

“And of course, we also know that walking comes with many other health benefits, including cardiovascular health, improved bone density, maintenance of a healthy weight and improved mental health.”

Professor Hancock said the amount of walking each person completed was individualised based on a range of factors including their age, physical capacity, preferences and available time. Participants were given a rough guide to build up to 30 minutes, five times a week over a six-month period.

After three months, Professor Hancock said most of the people who took part were walking three to five days a week for an average of 130 minutes.

“You don’t need to be walking five or 10 kilometres every day to get these benefits,” Professor Hancock says.

A cost-effective option

The paper’s lead author, Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Natasha Pocovi, says in addition to providing participants with longer pain-free periods, they found the program was also cost effective.

“It not only improved people’s quality of life, but it reduced their need both to seek healthcare support and the amount of time taken off work by approximately half,” Dr Pocovi says.

“The exercise-based interventions to prevent back pain that have been explored previously are typically group-based and need close clinical supervision and expensive equipment, so they are much less accessible to the majority of patients.

“Our study has shown that this effective and accessible means of exercise has the potential to be successfully implemented on a much larger scale than other forms of exercise.”

To build on these findings, the team now hopes to explore how they can integrate the preventive approach into the routine care of patients who experience recurrent low back pain.

Source: MacQuarie University

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags :

Popular OTC Supplement Improves Walking in Peripheral Artery Disease

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The over-the-counter supplement nicotinamide riboside, a form of vitamin B3, increased the walking endurance of patients with peripheral artery disease, a chronic leg condition for which there are few effective treatments. 

In a preliminary, randomised, double-blind clinical trial led by Northwestern University and University of Florida scientists, patients who took nicotinamide riboside daily for six months increased their timed walking distance by more than 17.3m, compared to a placebo group. As expected, walking speed declined in the placebo group, because peripheral artery disease causes progressive declines in walking performance. 

“This is a signal that nicotinamide riboside could help these patients,” said Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, PhD, a UF professor of physiology and aging and senior author of the clinical trial report. “We are hoping to conduct a larger follow-up trial to verify our findings.”

Along with other researchers, Leeuwenburgh, whose research specialises in anti-aging treatments, collaborated with Mary M. McDermott, MD, a physician and professor of medicine at Northwestern University and an expert in peripheral artery disease.

The scientists recruited 90 people with an average age of 71 who had peripheral artery disease, or PAD, to test the effects of nicotinamide riboside. The supplement is increasingly popular as an anti-aging treatment (sales exceeded $60 million in 2022 in the US alone) but there has been scant evidence of any benefit in healthy people. Nicotinamide riboside is a precursor for the essential compound NAD, which plays roles in the body related to energy generation, improved blood flow and DNA repair.

Because PAD is associated with problems generating energy within muscle cells, McDermott and Leeuwenburgh thought that nicotinamide riboside, by improving energy generation, could help improve walking in people with the disease.

And indeed that’s what they found. Participants taking the supplement walked an average of 7m more in a six-minute walking test after six months, while those taking a placebo walked 10.3m less. Those who took at least 75% of the pills they were supposed to take performed even better, adding more than 30m to their walking distance, compared to people who took a placebo.

(The researchers also tested if resveratrol, a compound best known for being in red wine, could boost the effects of nicotinamide riboside; they found no additional benefits.)

PAD affects more than 8.5 million Americans over the age of 40. Caused by the buildup of fatty deposits in arteries, and associated with diabetes and smoking, the disease reduces blood flow to the limbs, especially the legs. Walking often becomes painful, and the disease typically causes declines in walking ability over time. Supervised walking exercise is first line therapy for PAD, but most people with the condition do not have access to supervised exercise. 

In addition to a larger trial focused on patients suffering from PAD, Leeuwenburgh hopes to test the effects of nicotinamide riboside on walking performance in healthy older adults. 

“We need to test it on a healthy older population before we recommend healthy people take it,” he said.

Source: University of Florida

Categories : Ageing Skeletal SystemTags :

Walking Fitness can Predict Fracture Risk in Older Adults

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The ability to walk one kilometre comfortably can help predict fracture risk, according to researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that simply asking a patient about walking limitation could allow clinicians to identify those in need of further bone health screening and prescribe interventions that could prevent fractures from occurring.

“We’ve discovered that trouble walking even short distances appears closely tied to higher fracture risk over the following five years,” says lead author of the study, Professor Jacqueline Center, Head of Garvan’s Clinical Studies and Epidemiology Lab.

“Just a few simple questions about how far someone can walk could give doctors an early warning sign to check bone health.”

The researchers examined data on nearly 267 000 adults aged 45 and older from the Sax Institute’s 45 and Up Study, a major ongoing research initiative that has been tracking health outcomes in adults in the Australian state of New South Wales for more than 15 years.

Participants were asked if health issues limited their ability to walk various distances, with answer options of ‘not at all,’ ‘a little,’ or ‘a lot’. The group was then followed for five years to track fracture outcomes.

The researchers found that one in five adults reported some walking limitation at the beginning of the study.

Those with more difficulty walking were significantly more likely to experience a fracture during follow-up. For example, women who said they were limited ‘a lot’ in walking one kilometre had a 60% higher fracture risk than women with no limitation.

For men, the increased risk was over 100%.

“We saw a clear ‘dose-response’ pattern, where greater walking limitation meant higher fracture risk. This suggests a direct relationship between low walking ability and weaker bones,” says first author of the study Dr Dana Bliuc, Senior Research Officer at Garvan.

Approximately 60% of all fractures in the study were attributable to some level of walking limitation.

The link remained strong even after accounting for other factors like age, falls, prior fractures, and weight, and the findings were consistent across different fracture sites like hips, vertebrae, arms, and legs.

“In this generally healthy community-based population, we still found one in five people had trouble walking a kilometre,” says Professor Center.

“We think this simple assessment could help identify many more at-risk individuals who may benefit from bone density screening or preventative treatment.”

Osteoporosis medications, lifestyle changes, and other interventions are available to improve bone strength and avoid first or repeat fractures.

However, screening rates currently remain low, meaning many miss out on fracture risk assessments.

Finding easy but accurate ways to detect at-risk people is an important target for research.

“Fracture risk assessment generally relies on a bone density test, which many people have not had when seeing their doctor,” says Professor Center.

“Asking about walking ability takes just seconds and could be a free, non-invasive way to tell if someone needs their bones checked.”

The researchers stress that walking limitation may have many causes beyond weak bones, from heart disease to arthritis.

However, a difficulty in walking even short distances appears closely tied to fracture risk independently.

“We hope these findings will encourage clinicians to consider walking ability as a red flag for possible bone health issues. For patients, if you can’t walk a full kilometre comfortably, it may be wise to ask your doctor about getting your bones checked,” says Dr Bliuc.

Source: Garvan Institute of Medical Research