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A growing body of evidence indicates that physical capability — the ability to perform physical daily tasks — predicts future health and mortality. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, investigators determined the associations between objective measures of physical capabilities (e.g., grip strength, walking speed, chair rising) and early mortality.
Most studies involved people older than 60. Follow-up ranged from about 5 to 20 years. Meta-analysis of 14 studies that involved 53,000 people showed that those in the lowest grip-strength quartile were 67% more likely to die during follow-up than people in the highest quartile. Meta-analysis of five studies that involved 15,000 people showed that those in the slowest walking-speed quartil…