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The focus of a physically active lifestyle for older adults is to preserve functional mobility and delay losses associated with decrepitude in later years. Since ambulation is of utmost importance to older adults’ mobility, the purpose of this nonexhaustive review is to consider older adults’ walking behaviors objectively captured as steps/day and the factors that shape them. Summarized evidence currently indicates that apparently healthy older adults accumulate between 2,000–9,000 steps/day and that older adults living with disabilities and/or chronic conditions average approximately 1,200–8,800 steps/day. The scientific body of objectively monitored knowledge focused on potential individual, program, and contextual factors that shape older adults’ walking behaviors expressed as steps/day (i.e., their ability to and practice of getting “out and about”) is infantile at this time. We provide a simple research agenda to spark scholarly efforts to address research gaps and opportunities in the collective knowledge base.

Walking cadence (steps per minute) is associated with the intensity of ambulatory behavior. This analysis provides normative values for peak 30-min cadence, an indicator of “natural best effort” during free-living behavior. A sample of 1,196 older adults (aged from 60 to 85+) with accelerometer data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2006 was used. Peak 30-min cadence was calculated for each individual. Quintile-defined values were computed, stratified by sex and age groups. Smoothed sex-specific centile curves across the age span were fitted using the LMS method. Peak 30-min cadence generally trended lower as age increased. The uppermost quintile value was >85 steps/min (men: 60–64 years), and the lowermost quintile value was <22 steps/min (women: 85+). The highest 95th centile value was 103 steps/min (men: 64–70 years), and the lowest 5th centile value was 15 steps/min (women: 85+). These normative values may be useful for evaluating older adults’ “natural best effort” during free-living ambulatory behavior.

Background: To determine if children’s moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time varied across levels of household income in countries at different levels of Human Development Index (HDI), consistent with the theory of epidemiological transition. Methods: Data from 6548 children (55% girls) aged 9–11 years from 12 countries at different HDI levels are used in this analysis to assess MVPA and sedentary time (measured using ActiGraph accelerometers) across levels of household income. Least-square means are estimated separately for boys and girls at the estimated 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles of HDI for the sample. Results: For boys, time in MVPA is negatively associated with income at the 10th and 50th percentiles of HDI (both P < .002). For girls, time in MVPA is negatively associated with income at the 10th and 50th percentiles of HDI (all P < .01) and positively related with income at the 90th percentile (P = .04). Sedentary time is positively associated with income at the 10th percentile of HDI for boys (P = .03), but not for girls. Conclusions: Results support the possibility of an epidemiological transition in physical activity, with lower levels of MVPA observed at opposite levels of income depending on the HDI percentile. This phenomenon was not observed for sedentary time.