Self-paced walking as a method for exercise testing in elderly and young men.

1. An exercise test has been developed which is suitable for elderly or frail subjects. It is based on free walking at three different speeds on a level indoor course of 256m. The subject sets his own pace in accord with simple instructions. 2. Twenty-four elderly men and ten young men took part in the study. 3. The time and number of paces taken to cover two sections of 100m within the course were used to establish that the subjects walked steadily. Walking speed, pace frequency and stride length were then calculated. 4. Heart rate was obtained with body-borne tape recorders and related to the walking speed. The heart rate at a standard walking speed could then be obtained by interpolation. This is an assessment of the cardiovascular response to exercise (physical condition). The variation on repeating the test was +/-5 per cent and there was no significant difference between the two age groups. 5. The assessment was found to correlate moderately well with a conventional assessment of physical condition based on oxygen uptake from tests on a bicycle ergometer. 6. The test could also be used as a performance index since walking speed was characteristic for the subject. The younger group walked significantly faster than the older group. As a performance index the test is therefor sensitive to age differences.