Walking speed to determine walking performance of people with mobility limitations from a developing country.

Background: The criteria to determine walking performance of people with mobility limitations from developed countries have been already reported. However, these criteria may not be suitable to be applied for people with mobility limitations from developing countries due to the differences in sociodemographic characteristics and environmental conditions.

Objective: To explore cutoff points of walking speed to determine walking performance of individuals with mobility limitations from a developing country.

Methods: Individuals with mobility limitations from a developing country (n = 136) were cross-sectionally interviewed and assessed for their demographics and walking performance. Then they were assessed for their walking speed using the 10-meter walk test.

Results: Walking speeds of ≥0.30 m/s, ≥ 0.40 m/s, and ≥0.65 m/s could optimally indicate the ability of outside-home walking, limited-community walking, and full-community walking, respectively (sensitivity = 78%-84%, specificity = 81%-93%, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] > 0.90). Moreover, a walking speed of ≥0.35 m/s could suggest the ability of functional walking (sensitivity = 78%; specificity = 83%; and AUC = 0.89).

Conclusions: With the need of standard practical measure for early screening and monitoring of functional alteration over time, the present walking speed cutoff points may be clinically applied to suggest walking performance in daily living specifically for individuals with mobility limitations from a developing country.