title: Going places: Does the two-minute walk test predict the six-minute walk test in lower extremity amputees?
abstract: 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).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Ottawa, K1H 8M2 Ottawa, Canada. laurenreid@rogers.com.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Penny
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Besemann
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dudek
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000671:Amputation, Surgical / Q000534:rehabilitation; D000674:Amputees / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D013997:Time Factors; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*