People who walk slowly are at a four times greater risk of dying from coronavirus and twice as likely to contract severe Covid-19, a new study has warned.
University of Leicester researchers studied 412,596 middle-aged UK Biobank participants and the relative link between body mass, walking pace and Covid-19.
People walking slowly but of a normal weight are 2.5 times more likely to develop severe Covid-19 than normal-weight, fast walkers, the team discovered.
They also found that slow walkers were 3.75 times more likely to die from the virus that put most of the world in lockdown and has led to millions of deaths.
For the study, a slow walker was defined as someone who moved at three miles per hour, while a fast walker moved at more than four miles per hour.
While the reason for the findings remain unclear, the researchers suggest that fast walkers may have a healthier cardiovascular system, regardless of their weight.
People who walk slowly are at a four times greater risk of dying from coronavirus and twice as likely to contract severe Covid-19, a new study has warned. Stock image
All of the data came from the UK Biobank, a large and long-term study of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure that started in 2006.
Tom Yates, lead researcher for the study and a professor of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health at the University of Leicester said it has already been established that obesity and frailty are ‘key risk factors’ for Covid-19 outcomes.
‘This is the first study to show that slow walkers have a much higher risk of contracting severe Covid-19 outcomes, irrespective of their weight,’ he said.
‘With the pandemic continuing to put unprecedented strain on healthcare services and communities, identifying individuals at greatest risk and taking preventative measures to protect them is crucial.’
According to the research normal weight slow walkers are more at risk of both severe disease and death than obese fast walkers.
Furthermore, risk was uniformly high in normal weight slow walkers and obese slow walkers, according to the team behind the study.
Professor Yates added that fast walkers have been shown to generally have good cardiovascular and heart health, which makes them more resilient.
These external stress factors include viral infection, but this hypothesis has not yet been established for infectious disease.
‘Whilst large routine database studies have reported the association of obesity and fragility with Covid-19 outcomes, routine clinical databases do not currently have data on measures of physical function or fitness,’ said Yates.
‘It is my view that ongoing public health and research surveillance studies should consider incorporating simple measures of physical fitness such as self-reported walking pace in addition to BMI, as potential risk predictors of Covid-19.’
University of Leicester researchers studied 412,596 middle-aged UK Biobank participants and the relative link between body mass, walking pace and Covid-19. Stock image
Doing so could ‘ultimately enable better prevention methods that save lives.’
Researchers noted a number of limitations to their study, saying that although self-reported walking pace has been shown to be associated with cardiorespiratory fitness within UK Biobank, it is subject to possible reporting bias.
They say that given this and the observational design, no definitive causal conclusions can be derived from their results.
The findings have been published in the journal International Journal of Obesity.
