Biden undergoes an annual physical at Walter Reed

President Biden underwent the third physical exam of his presidency on Wednesday amid concerns about his age as he campaigns for a second term.

According to the White House, Mr. Biden, 81, traveled to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for his annual physical. The visit was not announced in advance but was on his schedule, according to two people familiar with the plans but who were not advised to speak publicly about it.

The White House is expected to release a summary of Mr. Biden’s physical visit later on Wednesday.

The events of recent weeks have put Mr. Biden’s age in the spotlight. He was described in a special counsel report on his handling of classified documents as a “well-meaning older man with a poor memory.” Polls show that a majority of Americans are concerned about his age and his ability to run for a second term. And Mr. Biden has made unforced errors at events, including recalling interactions with foreign leaders who would have been dead at the time those interactions took place.

As the presidential election heats up, the president has sought in recent days to allay concerns about his age by reframing the focus on his likely Republican challenger, former President Donald J. Trump, who is four years younger and making a number of untrue claims do. exaggerated or outright false claims in each of his public appearances.

“You should look at the other guy,” Mr. Biden said this week during an appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” “He’s about my age, but he can’t remember his wife’s name,” he added, referring to a video in which Trump, 77, appeared to forget his wife’s name, Melania.

White House officials have been asked for weeks if and when Mr. Biden would make the trip to Walter Reed. Last February, Kevin C. O’Connor, the president’s longtime physician, gave Mr. Biden a clean bill of health, calling him a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old.”

But Biden’s advisers have refused to say definitively whether the president – the oldest in the country’s history – will undergo tests to assess his memory and cognitive skills. (In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has bragged about taking the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a test that can help detect dementia and cognitive decline, but he has distorted the facts about the content of the test. And the Montreal test is, experts say, neither definitive nor diagnostic.)

Mr. Biden has also become noticeably slower in his movements in recent months. He walks stiffly while making his way to the stage at performances and takes the short flight of stairs straight to the belly of Air Force One, rather than the higher stairs to the top floor of the plane. door.

Last year Dr. O’Connor said the stiffness in Mr. Biden’s gait was the result of “significant arthritis of the spine, mild post-fracture foot arthritis and a mild sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet,” for which the president is undergoing physical therapy to maintain flexibility.