International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access
ISSN: 2329-9096
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2329-9096
+44 1300 500008
Bela Agarwal
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Int J Phys Med Rehabil
Introduction: Physical inactivity in Indians is leading to increase in lifestyle related disorders like diabetes, cardiac diseases and cancer. Early identification and quantification of lack of physical activity using simple and reliable test is the need of the hour. Incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) is an externally paced walk test widely used for evaluation of exercise capacity.Currently normative values available for clinical reference are generated from western population. Aims: The study was conducted to find normative values for Incremental Shuttle Walk Test in healthy Indian adults (17-75 yrs). Methods: A convenient sample of 864 subjects was recruited after ethical approval. All subjects were divided into groups as per age and gender.Group 1: young adulthood (17-40), group 2: middle adulthood (40-65) and group 3: old adulthood (> 65 years) ISWT was performed as per standard protocol. Results: Average distance walked was 709.2 m, 556.4 m, 500 m in females and 807.9 m, 639.6 m and 517.1m respectively in males in the three age groups. Stepwise regression analysis revealed age and gender as key variables correlating with Incremental Shuttle Walk Distance (ISWD) resulting in derivation of following predictive equations for males and females. ISWD in meters =740.351â??(5.676 x age)+(99.007 x gender). Conclusion: Reference values were generated for healthy Indian adults. Physiological response to ISWT was shown to be affected by gender and increasing age. Easily measurable variables explained 68% of variance seen in ISWT making the reference equation a relevant part of evaluation of ISWT.