Inter-rater reliability and agreement of 6 Minute Walk Test and 10 Meter Walk Test at comfortable walk speed in patients with acute stroke

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Remediation of gait problems is a key feature of neurological physiotherapy We aimed to investigate the inter-rater reliability and agreement of the Six Minute Walk Test (6MWT) and Ten Meter Walk Test (10MWT), at comfortable walking speed, in hospitalized acute ischemic stroke patients.

Method

Forty acute first-time patients with brain stem or hemispheric ischemic stroke aged 67.4 ± 12.5 (SD), able to walk with or without an assistive device, were tested by one of three physiotherapists. Test–retest reliability was evaluated using a one-way random effects single measures model (1,1) absolute agreement-type Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Agreement was evaluated using the Standard Error of Measurement (SEM) and Smallest Detectable Change (SDC).

Results

Both tests demonstrated good reliability; ICC_1,1 0.83 (CI 95% 0.70–0.90) (6MWT) and 0.76 (CI 95% 0.59–0.87) (10MWT). The 6MWT-SEM was 27.2 m (m) and the SDC was 75.4 m. The 10MWT-SEM was 0.36 meters per second (m/s) and the SDC was 1.0 m/s.

Conclusion

Both tests demonstrated good inter-rater reliability, confirming their discriminative ability on a group of hospitalized first-time acute ischemic stroke patients. However, the measurement error was large for both tests, which is likely due to spontaneous neurological recovery and stress in the acute phase severely affecting the individual-level agreement estimate.

KEYWORDS:

• Six Minute Walk Test
• Ten Meter Walk Test
• reliability
• agreement
• acute stroke

Acknowledgments

We thank the co-workers at the ward Neurovascular Center, Department of Neurology at Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark for having a great attitude towards the study, Thorbjørn Hein for proofreading and Louise Feldborg Lyckhage and Inge Petersen for statistical advice and R-Studio support. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the study funders and patients participating, because without their participation this trial would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

Neither of the other authors has any conflict of interest.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Regional Health Research Grant of Region Zealand [181004], and the Naestved-Slagelse-Ringsted Hospitals regional research found [180886].