Performance of the 4 meter gait speed test (4MGS) compared to the 6 meters walk test (6MW) in lung pathology

4MGS,a frailty test has been considered a surrogate of 6MW in COPD. There isn´t much investigation in other respiratory conditions. Our aim was to find if there is equivalence between both tests and establish a prognostic value in other respiratory diseases During 2 years we checked all adult patients attending our Unit for evaluation with 6MW. We measured the speed they achieved walking 4 meters 2 hours before We tested 162 patients.99 women, mean age 65, weight 73 kg, stature 158 cm and BMI 29.4 Their diagnosis were: IPF 36%, COPD GOLD 4 17%, COPD GOLD 3 11%, PAH 12%, OAHS 12% and others 12% ANOVA showed no difference among all the diagnosis for 4MGS and 6MW. Average score in 6MW was 368.5 and in 4MGS was 1.01 m/sec for the whole group Pearson Correlation Coefficient showed a positive and significant correlation between both tests (νρ=0.0001 and ρ=0.92) meaning that high scores in 4MGS are equivalent to high scores in 6MW There was a negative correlation in both tests concerning age and a positive one with stature One year following the performance of the test 16 patients died. According to T-test for mean differences we found that those patients were the ones that obtained the lower scores in both tests. Mean in 4MGS was 0.69 m/sec and 248.1 m in 6MW Based in Weibull analysis we found that the chance of survival was below 20% after one year for those walking slower than 0.69 m/sec. Conclusions: It is possible to homologate 4MGS and 6MW in patients with different respiratory conditions Death for any cause could be predicted the following year in patients with a score ≤0.69 m/sec 4MGS is easy to implement in Primary Care Level as a risk evaluation tool for timely reference