How You Sleep May Impact How You Walk: A Pilot Cohort Study (Preprint)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Higher step width variability while walking is associated with poor physical function and falls. Sleep is an established modifiable risk factor for both gait and physical function impairments, but it remains to be examined whether sleep is also related to step width variability. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the cross-sectional associations between objectively measured sleep quality, using cardiopulmonary coupling spectrograms, and step width variability during a preferred walking condition among middle-aged and older adults. Methods This study included 72 adults (mean age 71, SD 8.3 y; n=37, 51% female; n=65, 90% non-Hispanic White) who had ≥2 nights of objectively measured sleep (cardiopulmonary coupling via SleepImage ring) and completed a 10-m walk at preferred speed while wearing inertial sensors (APDM Mobility Lab). Sleep measures included sleep duration, efficiency, fragmentation, stability, apnea-hypopnea index, percentage of time oxygen saturation level <90%, oxygen desaturation index, and respiratory disturbance index. Additional derived sleep variables were explored using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator models. Step width variability was defined by the asymmetry of lateral step variability and categorized as medial (≤−7.5 cm), minimal (within ±7.5 cm; reference), or lateral displacement (≥7.5 cm). Multinomial logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, race, education, BMI, and usual gait speed evaluated cross-sectional associations between sleep and step width variability categories. Results We found that a 1% higher sleep fragmentation was associated with a 6% higher probability of step width variability ≥7.5 cm (95% CI 1.01‐1.11), while a 1% higher sleep stability was associated with a 5% lower probability of variability ≥7.5 cm (95% CI 0.91‐0.99), compared to minimal variability. From the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator models, we found that a 1% higher sleep quality index, a 1% higher rapid eye movement sleep, a 1-second shorter apnea duration, and a 1-beat per minute slower mean heart rate were also associated with a lower probability of lateral compared to minimal displacement. Conclusions Poor sleep quality was associated with higher step width variability among middle-aged and older adults. This suggests that sleep may be a modifiable risk factor for maintaining postural stability while walking among middle-aged and older adults. Future studies are needed to examine whether intervening in these sleep measures also lowers the risk of falls.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".