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« on: September 16, 2007, 11:39:11 pm » |
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May 4, 2007 — A modified version of the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) that is used in adults provides a simple, inexpensive, and reliable means of assessing functional exercise capacity in children, even those as young as 3 years of age, new research shows.
The 6MWT is not widely used in children largely because standardized protocols and established reference values are lacking, lead author Dr. Ralf Geiger, from Innsbruck Medical University in Austria, and colleagues note. Other studies looking at the use of the 6MWT in pediatric populations have been limited by small subject numbers or have only included patients with a particular disease.
According to the report in The Journal of Pediatrics for April, performance of the 6MWT in pediatric populations may be more problematic than in adults, since children may lack motivation or not understand the reason for the test.
To address the motivation issue, the researchers provided the 528 study participants, who were healthy children and adolescents between 3 to 18 years of age, with a measuring wheel that provided instantaneous feedback regarding the distance walked. The researchers believed that this simple device, which the child rolls along the ground, would provide incentive for completing the test.
The 6MWT distance was directly related to age in both boys and girls younger than 12 years. In older subjects, the 6MWT distance continued to increase with age in boys, but plateaued in girls. Height was directly linked to the distance achieved in both genders.
Taken together, age and height accounted for roughly 50% of the variability in walk distance seen in boys and girls.
"This modified 6MWT proved to be safe, easy to perform, and highly acceptable to children. It provides a simple and inexpensive means to measure functional exercise capacity in children, even of young age, and might be of value when conducting comparable studies," the authors conclude.
This study was supported, in part, by an unrestricted grant from Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Austria.
J Pediatr. 2007;150:395-399.
source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/556055?mpid=100658&src=mp
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