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The six-minute walk test in healthy children: reliability and validity
1Dept. of Paediatrics, 6th Floor, Clinical Sciences Building, Prince of Wales Hospital, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong. albertmli@cuhk.edu.hk
The European Respiratory Journal
|June 3, 2005
Summary
The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) is a reliable and valid functional test for assessing exercise tolerance in healthy children. This study confirms its repeatability and accuracy in pediatric populations.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Exercise Physiology
- Clinical Exercise Testing
Background:
- The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) is a widely used functional assessment tool.
- Its reliability and validity in healthy pediatric populations require robust evaluation for accurate clinical application.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) in healthy Chinese secondary school students.
- To establish the 6MWT as a dependable measure of exercise tolerance and endurance in children.
Main Methods:
- Recruitment of healthy Chinese secondary school students for two testing sessions separated by two weeks.
- Inclusion of physical examination, spirometry, maximal incremental exercise testing, and the 6-minute walk test (6MWT).
- Subgroup analysis for test-retest reliability using repeat 6MWT at 2-4 week intervals.
Main Results:
- The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) demonstrated good concurrent validity, correlating well with maximum oxygen uptake.
- High test-retest reliability was observed, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.94 (0.89-0.96).
- Bland and Altman plots confirmed a high degree of repeatability for the 6MWT.
Conclusions:
- The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) is a reliable and valid functional test for assessing exercise tolerance and endurance in healthy children.
- The findings support the use of the 6MWT in pediatric clinical settings for evaluating functional capacity.