• Buse Özcan Kahraman, Ertuğrul Yüksel, Abdurrahman Nalbant, Umut Ziya Koçak, and Bayram Ünver.
• School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey
• Turk J Med Sci. 2019 Aug 8; 49 (4): 112611311126-1131.

Background/AimThe 6-minute walk test (6MWT) is the most commonly used and well-established test to measure functional exercise capacity in research and clinical settings. Country-specific reference values are important to interpret the results of 6MWT. However, no reference values have been reported for healthy Turkish children aged between 6 and 12 years old. The aim of this study was to determine normal reference values for the 6MWT test of healthy Turkish children aged between 6 and 12 years old.Materials And MethodsTwo hundred and sixty-two healthy children aged between 6 and 12 years old were included in this cross-sectional study. Measures included height, weight, body mass index (BMI), leg length, and 6MWT distance (6MWD).ResultsThe mean 6MWD was 572.58 (SD = 117.72) m. There were significant correlations between 6MWD and age (r = 0.764, P < 0.001), height (r = 0.742, P < 0.001), weight (r = 0.605, P < 0.001), BMI (r = 0.234, P < 0.001), and lower extremity length (r = 0.708, P < 0.001). In the stepwise multiple linear regression model, age and height explained about 60% of the variability of the 6MWT distance for the total sample.ConclusionReference values and prediction equation for the 6MWT in healthy Turkish children aged 6–12 years old have been reported for the first time in this study. Researchers and clinicians can use them to interpret the effectiveness of a treatment and/or to compare the results of disabled children with healthy ones.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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