Brief Walking Test and Cognitive Function among Congestive Heart Failure Patients: Effect Modification by Duration of Congestive Heart Failure

Various walking tests, such as the six-minute walk test (6MWT), are effective tools for assessing functional capacity in patients with cardiovascular disease.1 Due to its convenience of implementation and acceptance, these walking tests are also widely used to assess the response to rehabilitation interventions.1 Notably, such walking tests are a simple and useful prognostic marker of subsequent cardiac death among those with heart failure.2 Acute walking tests have also been shown to associate with cognitive function in a convenience sample of patients with chronic heart failure,3 which is an important determination as cognitive dysfunction has been shown to occur among those with heart failure.4,8 Thus, not only may the results of a 6MWT provide valuable information about cardiopulmonary functioning among heart failure patients, it may also help to provide useful information with regard to cognitive function, which ultimately may influence engagement in physical activity behavior. 9