Abstract
The 6-minute walking test (6MWT) is a simple assessment tool to evaluate exercise capacity. The result of the test is the distance that a subject can walk at a constant and normal pace within 6 minutes (6MWD) and reflects the aerobic/fitness performance related to walking function. Use of 6MWT has been relevant to assess exercise tolerance either in healthy children or in patients with, heart, lung and metabolic diseases. Our aim was to find 6MWT reference values in healthy Italian children. The 6MWT was performed in 5614 children aged 6–11 years recruited from primary Italian schools. Age related reference percentiles of the covered distance were gender-modeled. A linear and quadratic regression model was used to predict 6MWT performance. Males walked longer distances than females, respectively 598.8±83.9 m vs 592.1±77.6 m (p = 0.0016). According to the regression analysis, 6MWD was positively related to age, gender and height, while it was negatively related to body weight [(6MWD = -160.16 + 93.35× age (years) -4.05× age2 (years) +7.34× gender (m) +2.12× weight (kg) −2.50× height (cm)]. Reference values were established for the 6MWT in healthy children. The age related 6MWD percentiles provided a useful tool in the assessment of capacity in 6–11 year children, in fact they may be helpful to evaluate the effect of a given treatment or rehabilitation program and represent a feasible measure as to prevention within the primary school context. It was found a substantial difference from other countries for 6mwd values. In our study, factors such as age, weight and height were relevant for the prediction of 6MWD, similarly to other studies. Therefore, these variables should be taken into account in context of exercise performance.
Highlights
The 6-minute walking test (6MWT) is a test used to asses exercise capacity
The test measures the distance that subject walked (6MWD) in a constant and normal pace within 6 minutes and it reflects endurance and walking function covered at a submaximal level [1]
The 6MWD increased from 513.3 ± 60.4 m at 6 years to 656.1 ± 71.6 m, the walked distance was comparable until 8 years, the velocity increased progressively
Summary
Use of 6MWT in children has been relevant to assess exercise tolerance [2] in pathological conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, asthma, cystic fibrosis, end-stage renal disease and pulmonary hypertension [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. This simple test has been increasingly used over the past decade in healthy children because it is quick, easy to administer, especially in an evaluation setting without specific instrumentations, inexpensive, well understood, accepted and tolerated and more reflective of daily living activities than other exercise tests [10]. Demographic and anthropometrics characteristics such as age, gender, height and weight could affect the performance of the test [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
