Overview

• A four-month randomized trial in 14 retirement communities found that a 14-step-per-minute increase—raising cadence to about 100 steps per minute—delivered a 10% gain in functional capacity for prefrail and frail participants.
• By the end of the intervention, those who walked at the accelerated pace covered significantly longer distances on standardized six-minute tests than peers who maintained their usual speed.
• The July 2025 PLOS ONE publication formalizes walking cadence as an objective metric of activity intensity, offering a scalable alternative to subjective methods like the talk test.
• Researchers developed and validated the Walk Test smartphone app using a novel open-source algorithm, demonstrating step-count accuracy comparable to research-grade accelerometers.
• Investigators plan a public rollout of the Walk Test app and recommend simple tools such as metronomes to help older adults safely adopt and monitor target cadences.