A new study found that peripheral neuropathy is linked to slow gait and impaired lower extremity performance in older adults with and without diabetes.
Peripheral neuropathy is a progressive impairment of sensory, motor, and autonomic nerves in the feet and hands. It causes reduced mobility, muscle atrophy, pain and temperature sensations, to name a few. Though it’s often thought only to affect people with diabetes, it affects 25% to 32% of older adults without the disease, authors of a report published July 12 in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reported.
Participants were from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study who completed a study visit in the 2016-2017 year. The people didn’t use any walking aids during gait testing, which involved a four-meter walk test. Clinicians evaluated lower extremity function using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), which evaluates gait speed, balance at standing, and repeated chair stands. All of the data in the SPPB goes into a score, with 10 and up showing little or no lower extremity functional impairment, six to nine showing a mild problem and less than six showing a severe impairment.
Of the 2,786 participants included in the study, 32.1% had peripheral neuropathy. Those with it were more often male, and had a higher prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment, the authors noted.
People with peripheral neuropathy had slower mean gait speed and a higher prevalence of slow gait compared to adults without peripheral neuropathy.
“Our results confirm that the relationship between peripheral neuropathy and slow gait persists into advanced age, even accounting for normal declines in gait speed among healthy adults, and provide evidence that the cross-sectional associations of peripheral neuropathy, slow gait, and impaired lower extremity function are similar regardless of diabetes status,” the authors wrote.
“The associations of peripheral neuropathy with impaired lower extremity function in this group suggest that screening for peripheral neuropathy may be a strategy to identify individuals at increased risk of adverse outcomes,” the authors added.
