Objectives: Validation of an infrared healthcare technology aimed at measuring gait speed in older adults. Design: Validation study. Setting: Geriatric Department Participants: 90 patients from the Falls Unit of the Geriatrics Department for the validation assessment, and 5,328 patients of the Outpatient Clinic under usual care conditions for technology validation. Measurements: Walking speed was measured manually with a stopwatch as part of the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), using the GAITRiteampersand-flag-changetrade; (first, second and mean of 5 walks) and with the Walkway system. Agreement was determined with the Bland-Altman method. Results: Mean gait speed with the SPPB, GAITRiteampersand-flag-changetrade; (first, second and mean of 5 walks) and Walkway were 0.68 m/s, 0.77 m/s, 0.81 m/s, 0.71 m/s, and 0.70 m/s respectively. Pearson correlations between the Walkway system and SPPB, GAITRiteampersand-flag-changetrade; first walk, GAITRiteampersand-flag-changetrade; second walk, and GAITRiteampersand-flag-changetrade; mean of 5 walks were 0.822 (p ylt; 0.001), 0.810 (p ylt; 0.001), 0.824 (p ylt; 0.001), and 0.811 (p ylt; 0.001) respectively. The mean difference between the Walkway system and SPPB was 0.02 m/s and 95percent-flag-change of the values were between 0.29 and ampersand-flag-changeminus;0.26. Mean difference between Walkway system and GAITRiteampersand-flag-changetrade; second walk gait speed was ampersand-flag-changeminus;0.11 and 95percent-flag-change values were between 0.17 and ampersand-flag-changeminus;0.38. Mean walking speed in 5382 outpatients was 0.65 m/s (range 0.13-1.43; 95percent-flag-changeCI 0.6453-0.6568). No security problems or technical measurement errors were found using the Walkway system. Conclusions: The Walkway system presented is a valid, easy-to-use, self-implemented device for walking speed measurement in usual clinical practice with older adults.
