Ecological validity of walking capacity tests in multiple sclerosis.
PLoS One
; 10(4): e0123822, 2015.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25879750
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Ecological validity implicates in how far clinical assessments refer to real life. Short clinical gait tests up to ten meters and 2- or 6-Minutes Walking Tests (2MWT/6MWT) are used as performance-based outcomes in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) studies and considered as moderately associated with real life mobility.OBJECTIVE:
To investigate the ecological validity of 10 Meter Walking Test (10mWT), 2MWT and 6MWT.METHODS:
Persons with MS performed 10mWT, 6MWT including 2MWT and 7 recorded days by accelerometry. Ecological validity was assumed if walking tests represented a typical walking sequence in real-life and correlations with accelerometry parameters were strong.RESULTS:
In this cohort (n=28, medians age=45, EDSS=3.2, disease duration=9 years), uninterrupted walking of 2 or 6 minutes occurred not frequent in real life (2.61 and 0.35 sequences/day). 10mWT correlated only with slow walking speed quantiles in real life. 2MWT and 6MWT correlated moderately with most real life walking parameters.CONCLUSION:
Clinical gait tests over a few meters have a poor ecological validity while validity is moderate for 2MWT and 6MWT. Mobile accelerometry offers the opportunity to control and improve the ecological validity of MS mobility outcomes.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Walking
/
Exercise Test
/
Multiple Sclerosis
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
PLoS One
Year:
2015
Document type:
Article