TY - JOUR T1 - REPRODUCIBILITY OF CADENCE FREE SIX-MINUTE STEP TEST IN SUBJECTS WITH COPD. JF - Respiratory Care DO - 10.4187/respcare.02743 SP - respcare.02743 AU - Joyce N. F. da Costa AU - Juliano F. Arcuri AU - Ivana L. Gonçalves AU - Simone F. Davi AU - Bruna V. Pessoa AU - Mauricio Jamami AU - Valéria A. P. Di Lorenzo Y1 - 2013/09/17 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/early/2013/09/17/respcare.02743.abstract N2 - Introduction: Six-minute step test has been used to assess functional capacity in chronic conditions; however, its reproducibility in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease population has not been evaluated. This study objective was to evaluate the six-minute step test reproducibility. Methods: The test was performed in a single 20cm height step, where subjects were instructed to step up and down (cadence free) for six minutes. Subjects underwent three tests; the first and second controlled by the same assessor, with a 30min interval. Third test was controlled by a different assessor, one week after. For intra-rater comparison, first and second performances of the test were used, and for inter assessor comparison, best performance of the first two tests were compared to the third test. Results: Excellent relative intra and inter-rater reproducibility was observed (intraclass correlation coefficient greater than 0.8) and there was no statistical difference (repeated measures ANOVA) among the performances of the three tests. Intra-rater error values were acceptable (mean error of 5.7 steps and limits of agreement between −7 and 18 steps). Inter-rater error values were not acceptable, with mean error of 4.4 steps and limits of agreement between −20 and 29 steps. Conclusion: Six-minute step test proved to be reproducible in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease population when performed by the same assessor. ER -