Every step counts: understanding how COPD affects your mobility

Background 

Walking is an important part of daily life. For people living with COPD, changes in breathing, muscle strength and overall fitness can affect how they move. Previous studies have shown that people with COPD often walk less than those without the condition, but what has been less clear is how they walk during everyday activities and how these patterns change as COPD becomes more severe. 

By understanding these changes, healthcare teams may be able to spot early signs of a decline in mobility and offer support before difficulties become more serious.  

What did the study look at? 

This study explored how people with COPD walk during their normal daily routines and compared their walking with that of older adults without COPD. 

Researchers studied 549 people with COPD from seven clinics across Europe, along with 19 older adults who did not have COPD. All participants wore a small movement sensor on their lower back for one week. The device recorded walking continuously during daily activities such as moving around the home, shopping or walking outdoors. 

The researchers examined 15 different aspects of walking, including: 

• walking speed 

• steps per minute 

• stride length 

• how much these measures changed between different walking episodes. 

The study also explored whether walking patterns were linked with COPD severity and symptoms such as breathlessness. 

What did the results show? 

People living with COPD showed clear differences in the way they walked compared with the group without the condition. The study found that people with COPD: 

• walked more slowly 

• took fewer steps per minute 

• had shorter steps 

• showed greater differences when the condition was more severe. 

Overall, the study suggests that COPD affects not only how much people walk, but also the quality and consistency of their walking in daily life. 

Why is this important? 

Changes in walking can have a real impact on everyday activities. Slower movement, reduced speed and shorter steps can make it more difficult to carry out tasks such as shopping, climbing stairs or joining social activities. These changes may also affect confidence and independence. 

Recognising changes in walking early can help patients and healthcare teams decide when additional support is needed. This might include: 

• pulmonary rehabilitation 

• strength or balance training 

• ways to manage breathlessness 

• discussions about physical activity and daily routines. 

Understanding and monitoring changes in walking can help support independence and quality of life. 

Read the original research paper: How do people with COPD walk? A European study on digitally measured real‑world gait. 

This work is part of the EU-funded Mobilise-D project. Mobilise-D is a research consortium that is using digital technology to improve the measurement of walking performance in daily life. Partners from 34 top universities, hospitals and global industries are working together with patients, practitioners and industry experts to develop reliable measurements of real-world walking performance, such as how much someone walks, or their walking speed.