Article
Mobility-related function in older adults: Assessment with a 6-minute walk test,☆☆,

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Abstract

Objective: To determine the usefulness of the 6-minute walk test as an integrated measure of mobility in older adults. Design: Observational study.

Setting: Community centers and retirement homes in the Los Angeles area.

Patients: Eighty-six older adults without significant disease.

Interventions: None

Main Outcome Measures: Assessments included the 6-minute walk, chair stands, standing balance, gait speed, body mass index, and self-reported physical functioning and general health perceptions.

Results: One-week test-retest reliability of the 6-minute walk was .95. As hypothesized, the 6-minute walk distance was significantly greater for active than for inactive older adults (p < .0001), moderately correlated with chair stands (r = .67), standing balance (r = .52), and gait speed (r = -.73). It had a low correlation with body mass index (r = −.07). The correlation of the 6-minute walk with self-reported physical functioning was .55, and its correlation with general health perceptions was .39. Self-report and performance measures explained 69% of the variance in 6-minute walk scores.

Conclusions: The 6-minute walk test is reliable and is valid in relation to the performance and self-reported indicators of physical functioning tested in this study. It could serve as a useful integrated measure of mobility.

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    Supported by National Institute on Aging grant AG09931 and Agency for Health Care Policy and Research grant HS07370.

    ☆☆

    Presented in part at the 50th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, November 14–18, 1997, Cincinnati, OH.

    No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors or upon any organization with which the authors are associated.

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