Bohannon & Williams Andrews (2011)
About this reference
This meta-analysis pooled comfortable-pace walking speed data from 41 studies (23,111 participants) spanning ages 20 to 99. Grand means by decade and sex were computed from study-level statistics. Percentile spreads (p5, p25, p75, p95) were estimated by applying standard deviations from the Bohannon & Wang 2019 NIH Toolbox study (n=1,320; DOI 10.1016/j.apmr.2018.06.031), assuming a normal distribution around each grand mean.
Known limitations
- Grand means are pooled from study-level statistics, not individual-level data — within-study variance is approximated
- Percentile spread is estimated using SDs from a separate NIH Toolbox cohort (Bohannon & Wang 2019), not directly measured in the meta-analysis population
- Normal-distribution assumption may slightly underestimate tail values in older age groups where gait speed distributions can be right-skewed
- All studies used comfortable (self-selected) walking pace — maximal walking speed norms would differ