6WT App

This application measures the distance covered within 6 minutes ("6-minute walk test (6WT)") using GPS coordinates. The 6WT should give an assessment of the objective functional impairment (OFI) of patients with degenerative spinal diseases, as many disease-specific factors (pain, muscle weakness, etc.) have an influence on the test result.

The aim of this test is to walk as long and as far as possible during 6 minutes without jogging or running. You can wear your normal shoes and use a walking aid if necessary. If you experience severe pain, leg weakness or gait instability during the test, you can slow down or stop and sit down. If you experience significant symptoms of your back condition, you should press the "Flash" button on the app's user interface (=Time/Distance To First Symptoms). However, if the symptoms allow it, you should continue walking as soon as possible until the 6 minutes are over.

In general, we recommend conducting the measurements at a place where no blockades of the GPS signal are to be expected (e.g. dirt road on an open field, neighborhood environment without high buildings), a relatively straight path can be walked (optimal: 500-700m) and your testing does not have to be interrupted for other reasons (e.g. car traffic, intersection with red traffic light). Please do not take measurements inside buildings or in a zigzag course.

You should generally not perform the test if you have a severe heart or lung disease or if your health is otherwise impaired. You should also stop the 6WT if the following symptoms occur: Chest pain, increasing shortness of breath, sweating and general malaise.

In the current version of the "6WT-App“ we provide test values of 330 participants without spine disease (normal population). The user can now enter his age and sex in the settings. With the help of this information, the app performs an automatic Z-score calculation when used. The Z-Score describes the number of standard deviations of a test value from the age- and gender-specific mean test value of the normal population. This enables a standardized assessment of objective functional impairment in an individual test participant.