{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T05:11:33Z","timestamp":1788757893822,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788739200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Walking speed predicts survival, cognitive decline, and disability in older adults with a precision comparable to that of blood pressure\u2014yet no single discipline organizes itself primarily around walking. The result is a clinical vacuum: when walking deteriorates from the convergence of weak feet, eroding confidence, and an unwalkable neighborhood, patients have no specialist to consult and clinicians have no integrative framework to apply. We propose Gait Medicine as an interdisciplinary field organized around a three-layer model\u2014somatic (foot structure, neuromuscular function, sensory-perceptual systems, cognition, affect, and motivation), environmental (footwear and built environment), and meaning (social participation, cultural significance, and evolutionary origin)\u2014with autonomous mobility as its superordinate concept, explicitly encompassing those who cannot walk. We define the field\u2019s conceptual boundaries, distinguish it from five adjacent disciplines, respond to three anticipated objections, and outline clinical implications including a Gait Clinic prototype and urban policy applications. The three-layer coupling model generates falsifiable predictions about integrative interventions that can be tested empirically. Gait Medicine does not claim to have discovered walking. It argues that medicine has not yet organized a discipline around it\u2014and that the evidence, the patients, and the technology now make doing so both feasible and necessary.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1895889","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T04:23:39Z","timestamp":1788755019000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Gait Medicine: an interdisciplinary field centered on walking as a vital sign"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Katsuya","family":"Hisamichi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Shimokitazawa Hospital","place":["Setagaya, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kazuhito","family":"Nagasaki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Vascular Surgery, Shimokitazawa Hospital","place":["Setagaya, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Masuomi","family":"Tomita","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Diabetic Center, Shimokitazawa Hospital","place":["Setagaya, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Naoto","family":"Takeda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rehabilitation, Shimokitazawa Hospital","place":["Setagaya, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Naoki","family":"Tanaka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shimokitazawa Hospital, Gait Analysis Laboratory","place":["Setagaya, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shohei","family":"Mukai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Footwear Division, SOL&Co. Ltd","place":["Shibuya, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kyota","family":"Kikuchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Podiatry Center, Shimokitazawa Hospital","place":["Setagaya, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2010.1923","article-title":"Gait speed and survival in older adults","volume":"305","author":"Studenski","year":"2011","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1761","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa020441","article-title":"Abnormality of gait as a predictor of non-Alzheimer\u2019s dementia","volume":"347","author":"Verghese","year":"2002","journal-title":"N Engl J Med"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1304","DOI":"10.1093\/gerona\/60.10.1304","article-title":"Gait velocity as a single predictor of adverse events in healthy seniors aged 75 years and older","volume":"60","author":"Montero-Odasso","year":"2005","journal-title":"J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.1186\/1743-0003-8-66","article-title":"Rehabilitation of gait after stroke: a review towards a top-down approach","volume":"8","author":"Belda-Lois","year":"2011","journal-title":"J Neuroeng Rehabil"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1344","DOI":"10.1212\/01.CON.0000436159.33447.69","article-title":"Gait disorders","volume":"19","author":"Fasano","year":"2013","journal-title":"Continuum (Minneap Minn)"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1007\/s00508-016-1096-4","article-title":"Gait disorders in adults and the elderly: a clinical guide","volume":"129","author":"Pirker","year":"2017","journal-title":"Wien Klin Wochenschr"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"368","DOI":"10.1093\/ageing\/afh106","article-title":"Fear-related avoidance of activities, falls and physical frailty. 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