The 10m incremental shuttle walk test is a highly reliable field exercise test for patients referred to cardiac rehabilitation: a retest reliability study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the retest reliability of the 10m incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) in a mixed cardiac rehabilitation population.

DESIGN: Participants completed two 10m ISWTs in a single session in a repeated measures study. Ten participants completed a third 10m ISWT as part of a pilot study.

SETTING: Hospital physiotherapy department.

PARTICIPANTS: 62 adults aged a mean of 68 years (SD 10) referred to a cardiac rehabilitation program.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Retest reliability of the 10m ISWT expressed as relative reliability and measurement error. Relative reliability was expressed in a ratio in the form of an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and measurement error in the form of the standard error of measurement (SEM) and 95% confidence intervals for the group and individual.

RESULTS: There was a high level of relative reliability over the two walks with an ICC of .99. The SEMagreement was 17m, and a change of at least 23m for the group and 54m for the individual would be required to be 95% confident of exceeding measurement error.

CONCLUSIONS: The 10m ISWT demonstrated good retest reliability and is sufficiently reliable to be applied in practice in this population without the use of a practice test.