Abstract

The six-minute walk test (SMWT) consists of walking as far as possible and is characterized by being an easy test to perform. This paper examines the relationship between the variables of distance traveled, cardiac and pulmonary pathologies, and the oxygen consumption of a criterion test on treadmill and/or cycle ergometer, and the prediction equations of VO₂ in the SMWT of Maldonado and Ingle (2006), Vanhelst (2013) and Costa (2017) for people with pathologies. The paper is a bibliographic review that used the Scopus and WOS databases containing articles in English, Spanish and Portuguese, published between 2000 and 2017. Distance is the variable that was most measured, and it was most associated with VO₂; correlations with values from 0.01 to 0.8 were found. The pathologies most related to VO₂ max were pulmonary hypertension, obstructive pulmonary disease, and ventricular heart failure and stroke; and the cycle ergometer was the most commonly used in the VO₂ max criterion tests. Only one equation was created for children who were obese; it included distance and BMI (Vanhelst). Another equation was generated for adults with heart disease that also included sex (Costa). Besides, one equation was for patients with ventricular systolic dysfunction that also incorporated age, volume expiratory and hemoglobin (Ingle); another one was created for adults with heart failure, and this formula considered the distance (Maldonado). It is suggested to use the most appropriate equation and create predictive models for people with different characteristics.

Keywords: Aptitude tests; oxygen; extrapolation; health