Physical frailty and gait speed in community elderly: a systematic review

Objective: To identify the outcomes of studies on gait speed and its use as a marker of physical frailty in community elderly. Method: Systematic review of the literature performed in the following databases: LILACS, SciELO, MEDLINE/PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and ProQuest. The studies were evaluated by STROBE statement, and the PRISMA recommendations were adopted. Results: There were 6,303 studies, and 49 of them met the inclusion criteria. Of the total number of studies, 91.8% described the way of measuring gait speed. Of these, 28.6% used the distance of 4.6 meters, and 34.7% adopted values below 20% as cutoff points for reduced gait speed, procedures in accordance with the frailty phenotype. Regarding the outcomes, in 30.6% of studies, there was an association between gait speed and variables of disability, frailty, sedentary lifestyle, falls, muscular weakness, diseases, body fat, cognitive impairment, mortality, stress, lower life satisfaction, lower quality of life, napping duration, and poor performance in quantitative parameters of gait in community elderly. Conclusion: The results reinforce the association between gait speed, physical frailty and health indicator variables in community elderly.