Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT)

What this measure records

Distance walked in six minutes, in metres, as a whole number. Higher is better.

epnote ships it in four assessment templates: the initial NDIS battery, the knee and hip osteoarthritis set, the cardiorespiratory set and the falls and function set.

On the cardiorespiratory template, epnote records oxygen saturation and the Borg rating before and after the walk on the same assessment, using the existing vitals fields.

Protocol

epnote does not hold a transcribed standardised protocol for this measure yet. The detail that matters clinically, such as chair height, arm position, counting rules and course length, is not in this repository's research, so it is not written here.

Normative values

epnote does not hold sourced normative values for this measure yet. Rather than publish a table from memory, this section is empty until the numbers are transcribed from a primary source and checked against it, the same way the change thresholds below were.

Change thresholds

A change on any measure can be the client or it can be the test. The minimal detectable change (MDC) is the smallest change larger than the measurement error. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) is the smallest change a client would notice as worthwhile.

Only thresholds that have been read from the primary paper and checked against it appear below. Everything else is withheld.

A threshold belongs to the population it was measured in. Check the MCID and MDC calculator to compare a client's own change against these.

• MCID, Lung transplant: Anchor validity and protocol require full-text verification before wider registry acceptance.
• MCID, Lung transplant: Anchor validity and protocol require full-text verification before wider registry acceptance.
• MCID, Lung transplant: Anchor validity and protocol require full-text verification before wider registry acceptance.
• MCID, Other / not otherwise specified: Protocol details and individual study estimates require primary-study extraction beyond this review's own synthesis; population is heterogeneous, not a single diagnosis.
• MDC95, Parkinson's disease: Very limited transportability beyond this cohort; not a general outpatient cutoff.
• MCID, Stroke: Subgroup value, not combined with the overall (unstratified) estimate. Protocol details and sample characteristics unavailable in the retrieved abstract.
• MCID, Stroke: AUC indicates modest anchor discrimination; protocol details and sample characteristics unavailable in the retrieved abstract. Not to be conflated with the chronic-stroke 6MWT MCID gap (no record found for chronic stroke).
• MCID, Stroke: Subgroup value, not combined with the overall (unstratified) estimate. Protocol details and sample characteristics unavailable in the retrieved abstract.

Reporting this measure in a funder report

• Write the test name in full the first time, then the short form if you must.
• Write the unit in words: seconds, metres, repetitions.
• Put the change in daily life before the number.
• Give the baseline and the current value, so the reader can see the change without doing the arithmetic.
• Say how the test was done if anything about it was unusual, such as a walking aid or a different chair.

Related measures

• The 2-minute walk test, for a client who cannot manage six minutes or where the course is too short.
• Gait speed over a short course.

Questions

What is a clinically meaningful change in the 6-minute walk test?

It depends on the population, and epnote will only tell you where a threshold has been checked against its primary paper. The change thresholds section on this page lists each one with the population it was measured in, the method used to estimate it and the citation.

Can the 6-minute walk test be done on a shorter course?

Course length changes the result, because more turns means less distance. Record the course you used and keep it the same between tests.

Should the 6-minute walk test be stopped early?

That is a clinical decision for the supervising exercise physiologist, and it is not something software should decide. Record what happened in the note on the test card, and record the vitals you took.

Does epnote calculate percent predicted for the 6-minute walk?

Not yet. A predicted distance needs a published reference equation, and epnote does not hold one that has been checked against its source, so it is not offered rather than estimated.

Related

• 2-Minute Walk Test (2MWT)Outcome measures
• NDIS Exercise Physiology Progress Report Template (Plan Reassessment)Report templates
• Exercise Physiologist Report to GP Template for Medicare ReferralsReport templates
• MCID and MDC CalculatorFree tools

Sources

Everything on this page comes from one of these. epnote writes nothing clinical from memory.

• epnote measures library: the unit, direction and decimal places each measure is recorded indata/measures.ts and data/tests-listed.ts
• epnote listed tests and batteries research, which sources each measure's unit and directiondocs/research/tests-listed.md
• epnote threshold verification pack, 25 October 2026: all 83 evidence rows checked against their primary papers, 57 cleared on 26 October 2026docs/research/2026-10-25-threshold-verification.md
• epnote NDIS EP report template research, for the plain-language rules on reporting a measurementdocs/research/ndis/ndis-ep-report-templates-2026-10-20.md

What this page does not cover yet

• Normative values by age and sex for Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) are not in the repo's research, so that section is empty.
• A transcribed standardised protocol for Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) is not in the repo's research, so that section is empty.
• The brief asks for a predicted distance calculator with cited reference equations, and for percent predicted. The repo holds no reference equation, so neither is built. The page says so.