Measurement properties of walk tests in interstitial lung diseases

Abstract

The last European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society review on the measurement properties of walktests for chronic respiratory diseases was published in 2014. Since then, new information has been reported forpeople with interstitial lung diseases (ILD). This growth in knowledge is an opportunity to update the synthesis onfield test measurement properties and interpretation in ILD. CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, SportDiscus and Web of Science were searched until September 2021.Articles reporting on measurement properties of field walk tests in people with ILD were included. The quality of themeasures was assessed using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status MeasurementINstruments (COSMIN) and modified GRADE criteria. Hypotheses regarding the validity and responsiveness of themeasures were defined by the reviewing team prior to study analysis. The search strategy resulted in 1421 possibly eligible articles and 37 were withheld for data extraction. Walk testsassessed were the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) (n=28), Incremental (ISWT) (n=5) and modified (MSWT) (n=1)shuttle walk tests, and 4-meter gait speed (4MGS) (n=5). A summary of the measurement properties is in table 1.Minimal clinically important difference of the 6MWT was reported with a range of 22-45m. The 6MWT and 4MGS had the highest quality evidence and may therefore be used in people with ILD.