Yates T, et al. – This study was designed to quantify the association of self–reported walking pace and handgrip strength with all–cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality. Researchers reported that within the general population, a simple self–reported measure of slow walking pace could assist risk stratification for all–cause and cardiovascular mortality.

Methods

• This study included a total of 230 670 women and 190 057 men free from prevalent cancer and cardiovascular disease from UK Biobank.
• Usual walking pace was self-defined as slow, steady/average or brisk.
• Researchers assessed handgrip strength by dynamometer.
• In addition, Cox-proportional hazard models were adjusted for social deprivation, ethnicity, employment, medications, alcohol use, diet, physical activity, and television viewing time.
• Interaction terms investigated whether age, body mass index (BMI), and smoking status modified associations.

Results

• Findings showed that, over 6.3 years, there were 8598 deaths, 1654 from cardiovascular disease and 4850 from cancer.
• Researchers observed that associations of walking pace with mortality were modified by BMI.
• They noted that in women, the hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality in slow compared with fast walkers were 2.16 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.68–2.77] and 1.31 (1.08–1.60) in the bottom and top BMI tertiles, respectively; corresponding HRs for men were 2.01 (1.68–2.41) and 1.41 (1.20–1.66).
• Data also revealed that hazard ratios for cardiovascular mortality remained above 1.7 across all categories of BMI in men and women, with modest heterogeneity in men.
• Results indicated that handgrip strength was associated with cardiovascular mortality in men only (HR tertile 1 vs. tertile 3 = 1.38; 1.18–1.62), without differences across BMI categories, while associations with all-cause mortality were only seen in men with low BMI.
• In addition, researchers observed that associations for walking pace and handgrip strength with cancer mortality were less consistent.