• Suitable to find patients with (very) poor exercise tolerance
• Linked to prognosis in many NCDs
• Ceiling effect
  • Less suited for ‘milder’ disease or younger people
    • Picking up modest decrease in VO2peak particularly in younger patients is difficult
    • Less responsive to interventions in such patients (better use endurance tests)
• A result less than 300-350m is indicative of poor prognosis

In patient populations

• Timed walking tests -> 2-4-6-12 min duration
• Paced walking tests -> pace is fixed, more incremental
• Test specifically used in frailty
  • Comfortable walking speed -> distance
  • 4m gait speed
    • More remote from pure cardiorespiratory fitness (not the best measurement of exercise capacity, but related to frailty in the elderly, like in a nursing home)

Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB)

Alternatives

• 1 minute STS (e.g. in primary care)
  • Evaluation – estimate of physical fitness
    • Typically, with assessment of HR, StCO2, dyspnoea & fatigue)
  • Easy test
    • Chronometer
    • Saturation and HR
    • Classic chair (46cm)
    • Symptom scale
  • Small testing room
  • Responsive to rehabilitation (COPD with MID n=3)
  • Ceiling effect in better patients