Association Between Gait Speed and Upper Limb Movement Time in Healthy Older Adults: Implications for Physiotherapy Practice

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Movement time plays a crucial role in performing daily activities, although it is not typically recorded in physiotherapy practice. However, gait speed is regularly used as an overall mobility index in elderly people. As a result, gait speed can be a proxy for assessing motor function in general, not limited to gait alone. Thus, this research aims to investigate the relationship between gait speed and upper limb movement time in healthy older adults. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional observational study involving 30 healthy community-dwelling older adults admitted to a tertiary care hospital. Gait speed was recorded using the GAITRite system by having participants walk at a self-selected comfortable pace. Upper limb movement time was evaluated using the Kinovea software while carrying out specific tasks from the Fugl-Meyer Upper Limb Assessment scale. The relationship between gait speed and upper limb movement time was analysed using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. RESULTS: A moderate inverse relationship was observed between gait speed and upper limb movement time (ρ = -0.44, p = 0.003; 95% CI: -0.66 to -0.15). DISCUSSION: Gait speed is moderately associated with upper limb movement time in healthy older adults (ρ = -0.44), representing a moderate effect size; a substantial proportion of variance in upper limb performance remains independent of walking speed. These findings are associative in nature and suggest that upper limb movement time may complement gait speed in physiotherapy assessment; however, validation in larger, more diverse samples is needed before clinical translation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered with the Clinical Trials Registry-India (CTRI) (Registration Number: CTRI/2023/11/059756; Registration date: 13 November 2023).