Six-minute walk test closely correlates to "real-life" outdoor walking capacity and quality of life in patients with intermittent claudication.

OBJECTIVE: We used outdoor walking distance measured during 40 minutes as "real-life" outdoor walking capacity in 49 patients with intermittent claudication (IC). The outdoor walking distance was measured by a global positioning system application for a smartphone. The relationships of self-reported maximum walking distance (SR-MWD), the MWD on a graded treadmill test, and the 6-minute maximum walk distance (6MWD) vs outdoors walking capacity were investigated. Also studied were the associations of SR-MWD, MWD, and 6MWD with health-related quality of life assessed with the disease-specific instrument the Vascular Quality of Life Questionnaire (VascuQoL).

METHODS: In this prospective observational cohort study, 49 IC patients underwent an outdoor walking capacity test for 40 minutes, and MWD and 6MWD were measured. SR-MWD was recorded, and all subjects completed the VascuQoL questionnaire. Associations between the different walk estimates and outdoor walking capacity and health-related quality of life were investigated by correlation analysis (Spearman ρ).

RESULTS: Outdoor walking distance during 40 minutes was a median 2495 m (range, 1110-3300 m). SR-MWD correlated moderately and MWD correlated strongly to outdoor walking capacity (r = 0.56 and r = 0.65; P < .001, respectively). The 6MWD test showed the largest correlation to the outdoor walking capacity (r = 0.78; P < .001). The 6MWD was the only test that showed correlations with the VascuQoL sum score (r = 0.53; P < .01) and all of the domain scores, whereas SR-MWD and MWD showed weak correlations to the VascuQoL.

CONCLUSIONS: The distance walked during the 6-minute walk test is closely correlated to outdoor walking capacity and health-related quality of life in IC patients. Our data support the use of 6MWD for routine clinical evaluation of walking capacity in IC patients.