ABSTRACT Background The 6‐minuteute step test is an alternative for estimating cardiorespiratory fitness after stroke. Objective To investigate its measurement properties and minimal detectable change early after stroke. Methods Cross‐sectional, methodological study. Participants were inpatient individuals in the acute/subacute phase after stroke, who performed the 6‐min step and the 6‐min walk tests. The outcomes of interest were test–retest and inter‐rater reliabilities, validity, measurement error, and minimal detectable change. Results Fifty‐one individuals (34 men) with a mean time of 6 days (SD 2) since stroke, and a mean walking speed of 0.9 m/s (SD 0.2) were included. The 6‐min step test had a very‐high test‐retest (ICC 0.93; 95% CI 0.88–0.96) and inter‐rater reliability (ICC 0.95; 95% CI 0.91–0.97). The correlation between the 6‐min‐step test and the 6‐min walk was moderate ( r = 0.5; 95% CI 0.3–0.7). The measurement error was 8 (10%) and the minimal detectable change was 21 repetitions. Conclusion The 6‐min step test demonstrated appropriate test‐retest and inter‐rater reliability. Agreement with the 6‐min walk test was imprecise, which may reflect the greater physical demand of the 6‐min‐step test. Further studies are needed to examine the relationship between the 6‐min‐step test and maximal cardiorespiratory capacity.
Pavesi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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