Background

Walking at a brisk pace is widely recommended to promote health. When partners walk together, walking activity is increased and maintained due to enhanced social support and accountability, but at least one person must adjust their gait speed. Decreased gait speed could compromise health benefits, which may be especially relevant for the aging population.

Research question

Do adults change gait speed when walking with their romantic partner, relative to walking alone, and is the change in speed affected by age or pathway conditions?

Methods

Participants were 141 individuals from 72 romantic couples; age range 25−79 years. The three couple conditions were walking alone, walking with their partner, and walking while holding hands with their partner. The two pathway conditions were clear pathway and pathway with obstacles. Gait speed was modeled as a function of the couple conditions, pathway conditions, and covariates (gender, age, relationship duration, and physical activity) using mixed-effects (3-level) regression.

Results

In both pathway conditions, both partners reduced speed when walking together (p < 0.001), and reduced speed further while holding hands (p < 0.001), when compared to walking alone. These effects were unchanged when covariates were included in the model. Further, speed was slower on the obstructed pathway for all participants, but the magnitude of slowing was greater with increasing age (p < 0.001) and in females (p=0.03).

Significance

Across the adult lifespan, when walking together, both partners decreased gait speed by a clinically meaningful amount (≥0.05 m/s). While walking with a partner may increase walking activity due to social support, reduced speed when walking together may unintentionally reduce health benefits and gait quality in both partners. Future research should identify how health is impacted by the trade-off between increased walking activity and reduced gait speed when romantic partners walk together.

中文翻译：

---

浪漫伴侣在一起时步态速度的变化：年龄和阻碍路径的影响

背景

广泛建议快步走以促进健康。当伙伴一起散步时，由于增强的社会支持和责任感，步行活动得以增加和维持，但是至少一个人必须调整步态速度。步态速度降低可能会损害健康益处，这可能与人口老龄化特别相关。

研究问题

与单身行走相比，成年人与浪漫伴侣同行时是否会改变步态速度？速度变化是否会受到年龄或路况的影响？

方法

参加者有来自72对浪漫情侣的141个人；年龄范围25-79岁。这三对夫妇的条件分别是独自行走，与伴侣行走以及与伴侣牵手行走。两种途径条件是明确途径和有障碍的途径。使用混合效应（3级）回归，将步态速度建模为夫妇条件，通路条件和协变量（性别，年龄，关系持续时间和身体活动）的函数。

结果

在两个路径条件下，与单独走路相比，两个伙伴在一起行走时降低了速度（p <0.001），而在双手握住时进一步降低了速度（p <0.001）。当将协变量包括在模型中时，这些影响没有改变。此外，所有参与者在阻塞路径上的速度较慢，但​​随着年龄的增长（p <0.001）和女性（p = 0.03），减速的幅度更大。

意义

在成人的整个寿命中，当他们一起散步时，两个伙伴的步态速度降低了临床上有意义的程度（≥0.05m / s）。虽然与伴侣一起散步可能会由于社会支持而增加步行活动，但是一起散步时速度降低可能会无意中降低双方的健康益处和步态质量。未来的研究应该确定当浪漫伴侣一起走路时，增加步行活动和降低步态速度之间的权衡如何影响健康。