The association between poor performance on SPPB and all-cause mortality remained highly consistent independent of follow-up length , subsets of participants , geographic area , and age of the population .
Conclusions An SPPB score lower than 10 is predictive of all-cause mortality .
The systematic implementation of the SPPB in clinical practice setting s may provide useful prognostic information about the risk of all-cause mortality .
Background The Short Physical Performance Battery ( SPPB ) is a well-established tool to assess lower extremity physical performance status .
Its predictive ability for all-cause mortality has been sparsely reported , but with conflicting results in different subsets of participants .
The aim of this study was to perform a meta- analysis investigating the relationship between SPPB score and all-cause mortality  .
Lower limb function and 10-year survival in population aged 75 years and older.
BACKGROUND Scientific societies recommend assessing lower limb function in usual clinical practice . The Short Physical Performance Battery ( SPPB ) is one of the most vali date d tools to assess this , but its capacity to predict long-term mortality in very old population attending primary care has not been studied . OBJECTIVE To assess the ability of the SPPB to predict 10-year survival in individuals aged 75 and over . METHODS Prospect i ve cohort study with a 10-year follow-up . A representative sample of people aged 75 years or older without severe dependence ( Barthel Index > 20 ) treated at a Spanish primary care centre ( n = 315 ) . Baseline evaluation included  geriatric assessment  with most well-known death predictors . The three SPPB subtasks ( st and ing balance , walking speed and chair st and tests ) were administered . Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models were calculated for all-cause mortality . RESULTS Mean age was 81.9 years ( 60.6 % female ) . Ten-year survival of elders with SPPB score < 7 and ≥7 was 0.23 and 0.37 ( P < 0.001 ) , respectively . This difference remained statistically significant in the Cox model adjusted by age , gender , number of drugs prescribed , cognitive status , body mass index and visual sharpness ( adjusted hazard ratio = 1.37 ; 95 % confidence interval : 1.01 - 1.86 ) . Also , walking speed and chair st and subtasks were both individual-independent predictors of 10-year survival . CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that SPPB is an independent predictor of long-term survival . The chair st and subtask could be a predictor as useful as the full performance battery , becoming a good alternative for primary care where the burden of performing all three subtasks could be excessive
The association between poor performance on SPPB and all-cause mortality remained highly consistent independent of follow-up length , subsets of participants , geographic area , and age of the population .
Conclusions An SPPB score lower than 10 is predictive of all-cause mortality .
The systematic implementation of the SPPB in clinical practice setting s may provide useful prognostic information about the risk of all-cause mortality .
Background The Short Physical Performance Battery ( SPPB ) is a well-established tool to assess lower extremity physical performance status .
Its predictive ability for all-cause mortality has been sparsely reported , but with conflicting results in different subsets of participants .
The aim of this study was to perform a meta- analysis investigating the relationship between SPPB score and all-cause mortality  .