Walking Speed and Mortality: An Updated Systematic Review.

<bold>Objective: </bold>The aim of our systematic review was to update the current evidence on the association between slow walking speed (WS) and mortality, expanding the current knowledge available in the literature.<bold>Methods: </bold>A systematic review of the published data on the association of WS and mortality was carried out by searching on PubMed and ISI Web of Knowledge databases.<bold>Results: </bold>From a title and abstract analysis, 61 articles were included that met the prespecified criteria. After a full-text analysis, 6 articles were excluded and the remaining articles accounted for 120,838 patients and > 25,148 deaths were registered. The duration of follow-ups ranged between 2 and 21 years. In general, studies have shown a consistent association between WS and mortality from all causes.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>WS showed continuous and consistent evidence to be a good predictor of mortality. As such, our study supports the use of this tool in clinical practice as a way to improve health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]