Slow walkers are almost four times more likely to die from coronavirus and are more than twice as likely to develop extreme COVID-19.
Slow walkers with normal weight are about 2.5 times more likely to experience extreme Covid-19 and 3.75 times more likely to die from the infection than fast walkers with a normal weight.
The researchers observed the association between BMI and self-reported walking speed and the risk of contracting severe Covid-19 and mortality among 312,596 middle-aged UK Biobank participants.
Experts, whose study is titled "Obesity, walking pace and severe risk of COVID-19 and mortality: analysis of UK Biobank," published their results in the International Journal of Obesity.
Researchers from the National Institute for Health Science (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre performed the study.
COVID-19: How Coronavirus Infection Affects Walking Pace, Speed in Public
News Hub said around 1,000 people in its control population of over 400,000 case studies had developed an extreme case of COVID-19, which is linked to their walking pace. Furthermore, obesity is a significant factor that influences infection rates because obese people have weakened immune systems.
Slow walkers were those who traveled at less than three miles per hour, while a steady/average pace was three to four miles per hour, and a brisk pace was more than four miles per hour.
"We know already that obesity and frailty are key risk factors for Covid-19 outcomes," said Tom Yates, lead researcher for the study. Yates is a professor of physical activity, sedentary behavior and health at the University of Leicester.
This is the first research to demonstrate that sluggish walkers, regardless of weight, have a far greater chance of extreme COVID-19 case.
With the pandemic putting immense pressure on healthcare systems and societies, it's important to recognize people who are most at risk and take preventative action to protect them.
Slow walkers with average weight have a higher chance of extreme illness and death than fast walkers with obesity, according to the report.
Furthermore, the risk was uniformly high in both medium-weight and obese slow walkers.
Fast walkers have been shown to have strong cardiovascular and cardiac fitness, making them more resilient to environmental stressors including viral infection, according to Professor Yates, although this finding is yet to be shown for infectious disease.
COVID-19: Results Need More Evidence Over Claim
Although major routine database studies have shown a connection between obesity and fragility and COVID-19 results, Professor Yates said there is currently no evidence on physical health or exercise in routine clinical datasets.
"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 outcomes that could ultimately enable better prevention methods that save lives," he added.
Although self-reported walking speed has been shown to be correlated with cardiorespiratory activity within UK Biobank, the researchers acknowledged a range of limitations to their analysis. They noted, per Evening Standard, that their study could serve as a subject to potential reporting bias.
They claim that because of this and the observational nature, their findings cannot be used to draw conclusive causal conclusions.
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