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

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. (C) 1999 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.