Your pace of walking may predict heart disease, mortality risk

A UK study reveals that middle-aged people who are slow walkers are twice as likely to have a heart-related death compared to brisk walkers.

Are you a middle-aged person with a slow walking pace? If yes, you might be at a higher risk of developing heart disease compared to those who walk steady or at a brisk pace, researchers have found.

The study revealed that middle-aged people, both men and women, who reported that they are slow walkers were around twice as likely to have a heart-related death compared to brisk walkers.

“This suggests that habitual walking pace is an independent predictor of heart-related death,” said Professor Tom Yates, reader at the University of Leicester in Britain.

Further, walking pace was strongly linked to an individual’s objectively measured exercise tolerance, and a good measure of overall physical fitness. “Thus, walking pace could be used to identify individuals who have low physical fitness and high mortality risk that would benefit from targeted physical exercise interventions,” Yates added.

Moreover, the study also found that handgrip strength is a weak predictor of heart-related deaths in men and could not be generalised across the population as a whole.