Timed stair-climb power tests are reliable measures of leg power in older adults
Is a timed stair climb a reliable test?
The finding
The 4-step test had an ICC of 0.951 and correlated with other leg-power measures at r = 0.85–0.96. The 12-step tests had ICCs of 0.91–0.97 and responded to testosterone where gait speed did not.
- Authors
- Ni M, Brown LG, Lawler D, Bean JF; Gagliano-Jucá T, Li Z, Pencina KM, et al.
- Published
- Physical Therapy 97(7):767–773; Journals of Gerontology A 75(6):1167–1175 · 2017; 2020
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzx039
How it was studied
Ni: 50 people aged 65 and over, 4-step stair climb power test. Gagliano-Jucá: 12-step loaded and unloaded tests in older men.
What it does not show
These are power tests (mass × rise ÷ time) for older, mobility-limited people, not a four-flight fitness test. They support stair timing as a reliable measure, not as a norm source.
What Longstanding does with it
Supports what matters for a quarterly re-test: the same stairs, timed the same way, give a repeatable number.