Assessing the Reliability and Validity of a Shorter Walk Test Compared With the 10-Meter Walk Test for Measurements of Gait Speed in Healthy, Older Adults

Forty-three healthy, older adults (mean age = 84.3 ± 6.9 years) performed 3 consecutive walking trials on the 4- and 10-Meter Walk Tests at their self-selected walking speed.

Gait speed measurements for both tests were shown to have excellent test-retest reliability (ICC values of 0.96-0.98), with similar results for stopwatch and automatic timer assessments (ICC values of 0.99-1.00). Standard error of the measurement (SEM) values were small (0.004-0.008 m/s) across measurement methods. While the ICC value for gait speed measurements between the 2 walk tests was 0.93, the Bland-Altman analysis revealed a discrepancy of ±0.15 to ±0.17 m/s between measurement methods.