Kamran Hameed, Ahmad Masood Akbar, Salman Munir, Amna Kamran, Syed Asif Ali, Shakeel Qadir.
Prediction Of Six Minute Walk Distance In Healthy Pakistani Adults And Its Comparison With Other Ethnic Groups.
J Cardiovascular Dis Jan ;14(3):58-63.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Six minute walk distance (6MWD) is used to assess severity and prognosis of different cardio-respiratory diseases but its predicted value varies in different geographic regions and with ethnicity in addition to the influence of anthropometric factors. This study was conducted to determine predicted value of 6MWD in Pakistani adults and to compare it with some other countries. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was conducted in Lahore. Four hundred individuals of either gender participated in the study and age ranged from 18 to 80 years. Six minute walk test was administered to the participants according to guidelines of American Thoracic Society. Conditions that could affect walking were taken as exclusion criteria. Men and women were compared for the distance walked and effect of common anthropometric factors like height, weight, body mass index was studied. Eighty percent of the patients were randomly selected to find a predictive equation; remaining subjects were used as controls. Actual distance walked by the control group was compared with the predicted distance to validate the regression equation. The mean 6MWD of the study population was compared to the mean distance calculated using each of the five previously published equations.14-18 RESULTS:A total of 400 individuals participated in study; 344 (86.0%) were males and mean age of the patients was 32.42±10.33 years. Out of the study group (320 subjects), 279 (87.2%) were men and the mean age was 32.66+ 9.90 (range 19-72) years. Mean age of women was 38.0±13.79 years and that of men was 31.88± 8.96. Mean height and weight for men and women were 170.91±6.23 versus 156±6.92 cm (p=0.001) and 72.08±11.50 versus 59.59±21.68 Kg (p=0.001). Overall 6MWD of the study population was 855.78+ 107.01 m; 875.01±86.7 m for men and 724.95±137.41 m for women (P=0.001). Female gender, age and change in heart rate were negatively correlated whereas height and weight were positively correlated with 6MWD. Previously published equations mostly underestimated 6MWD in our study group. CONCLUSION:Prediction of 6MWD for Pakistani population by previously published equations is not accurate and hence inappropriate. Major predictors of 6MWD remain age, sex, height and weight.

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