- Design
- Feasibility study in one general practice
- Population
- 30 mobile adults attending a UK general practice diabetes clinic
- Primary outcome
- Feasibility and agreement of three walking speed methods
- Effect
- Timed walk 1.12 m/s vs accelerometer 1.15 and treadmill 1.01; recruitment 91%
Usual walking speed predicts cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes but is rarely measured in general practice. This feasibility study in a UK general practice diabetes clinic asked consecutive mobile patients to do a timed 28-metre walk in the surgery corridor while wearing an accelerometer, then a three-minute treadmill walk, repeated at six months.
Thirty of 33 patients agreed (91%), and 25 repeated testing at six months. Average speed was similar across methods: 1.12 m/s on the timed walk, 1.15 by accelerometer and 1.01 on the treadmill. Repeat tests agreed well, but limits of agreement between the corridor walk and the treadmill were wide. Patients and staff found all tests acceptable, but the treadmill took longest.
A corridor walk adds a minute or two to a diabetes review and gives a simple functional measure. This study shows it can be done; it does not show that measuring it changes outcomes.
- Consider timing a usual-pace corridor walk at the annual diabetes review.
- Use the same distance and instructions each time so results are comparable.
- Treat a slow walking speed as a prompt to review cardiovascular risk and physical activity.
- Skip treadmill testing in primary care; it took longest and added little.
Why it matters
Walking speed is a cheap risk marker that primary care almost never records.
Don't overread it
Thirty patients in one practice; this tests feasibility, not clinical benefit.
The statistics, in plain English
Bland-Altman limits of agreement show how far two methods can differ for one person. Good average agreement with wide limits means the methods give similar group results but may disagree noticeably for an individual.
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