Ecological Validity of Walking Capacity Tests in Multiple Sclerosis

J P Stellmann, A Neuhaus, N Götze, S Briken, C Lederer, M Schimpl, C Heesen and M Daumer

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-11

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.

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0123822

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123822

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