Article

OBJECTIVE: Assessing a patient's ability to walk the distance required for
community ambulation (at least 300 m) is important in amputee rehabilitation.
During the 2-min walk test, most amputees cannot walk 300 m. Thus, the 6-min walk
test may be preferred, but it has not been fully validated in this population.
This study examined the convergent and discriminative validity of the 6-min walk
test and assessed whether the 2-min test could predict the results of the 6-min
test. METHODS: A total of 86 patients with unilateral or bilateral amputations at
the Syme, transtibial, knee disarticulation or transfemoral level completed the
6-min walk test, 2-min walk test, Timed Up and Go test, Locomotor Capabilities
Index version 5, Houghton Scale of Prosthetic Use, and Activity-Specific Balance
Confidence scale. RESULTS: The 6-min walk test correlated with the other tests (R
= 0.57-0.95), demonstrating convergent validity. It demonstrated discriminative
validity with respect to age, aetiology of amputation, and K-level (p < 0.0001).
The 2-min walk test was highly predictive of the 6-min walk test distance (R2 =
0.91). CONCLUSION: The 6-min walk test is a valid measure of amputee ambulation.
However, the results suggest that it may not be necessary, since the 2-min walk
test strongly predicts the 6-min walk test. Clinicians could therefore save time
by using the shorter test.

Langue : ANGLAIS