Walking into aging: real-world mobility patterns and digital benchmarks from the InCHIANTI Study

Mobility is a cornerstone of health and quality of life, particularly in older adults. Digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) from real-world walking data offer crucial insights into the functional status and early markers of mobility decline. This study provides reference values for walking activity, pace, rhythm, and gait bout-to-bout variability in community-dwelling older adults and evaluates the effects of age, sex, height, and weight on these parameters. Using data from 200 older adults (aged 65-94 years) from the InCHIANTI Study and applying the Mobilise-D computational pipeline, we analyzed real-world walking over a week. Significant differences by sex and age were found, with males showing higher walking activity in younger age groups (65-74 and 75-84 years) but not in the oldest group (85-94 years). Additionally, we observed non-linear trends in mobility metrics with age, indicating an accelerated reduction in mobility at certain age ranges. These findings underscore the importance of monitoring real-world walking data to pinpoint critical periods of mobility decline and guide targeted interventions. This work offers valuable benchmarks for clinical assessments and future research.

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Publication Details

Journal
npj Aging
Published
2025-07-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00245-w
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Frailty in Older Adults
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.67

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article

Walking into aging: real-world mobility patterns and digital benchmarks from the InCHIANTI Study

Andrea Cereatti, Lorenzo Chiari, Luca Palmerini, José Albites-Sanabria et al.
3 citations
npj Aging
Frailty in Older Adults
3.67
article

Walking into aging: real-world mobility patterns and digital benchmarks from the InCHIANTI Study

Andrea Cereatti, Lorenzo Chiari, Luca Palmerini, José Albites-Sanabria, Arne Küderle, Ilaria D’Ascanio, Sabato Mellone, Judith García‐Aymerich, Luigi Ferrucci, Laura Delgado‐Ortiz, Silvia Del Din, Anisoara Paraschiv-Ionescu, Lynn Rochester, Eran Gazit, Jochen Klenk, Clemens Becker, Pierpaolo Palumbo, Felix Kluge, Carl-Philipp Jansen, Stefania Bandinelli
article en
3 citations

Abstract

Mobility is a cornerstone of health and quality of life, particularly in older adults. Digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) from real-world walking data offer crucial insights into the functional status and early markers of mobility decline. This study provides reference values for walking activity, pace, rhythm, and gait bout-to-bout variability in community-dwelling older adults and evaluates the effects of age, sex, height, and weight on these parameters. Using data from 200 older adults (aged 65-94 years) from the InCHIANTI Study and applying the Mobilise-D computational pipeline, we analyzed real-world walking over a week. Significant differences by sex and age were found, with males showing higher walking activity in younger age groups (65-74 and 75-84 years) but not in the oldest group (85-94 years). Additionally, we observed non-linear trends in mobility metrics with age, indicating an accelerated reduction in mobility at certain age ranges. These findings underscore the importance of monitoring real-world walking data to pinpoint critical periods of mobility decline and guide targeted interventions. This work offers valuable benchmarks for clinical assessments and future research.

npj AgingVol. 11(1)
Novartis (Switzerland) (CH), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES), Politecnico di Torino (IT), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE), University of Basel (CH), Universität Ulm (DE), Heidelberg University (DE), Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (IL), Marconi University (IT), University Hospital Heidelberg (DE), Robert Bosch Hospital (DE), Stuttgart Technical University of Applied Sciences (DE), Laboratori Guglielmo Marconi (Italy) (IT), Zimmer Biomet (Germany) (DE), Azienda Sanitaria di Firenze (IT), NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (GB), National Institute on Aging (US), Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ES), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (ES), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), Newcastle University (GB), Heidelberg University (US), University of Bologna (IT)
Wellcome Trust, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, UK Research and Innovation, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Newcastle University, European Commission, Ministero della Salute, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Seventh Framework Programme, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Horizon 2020, NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre, National Institute on Aging
Sustainable cities and communities
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Frailty in Older Adults
3.67
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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