Six minutes for your health – project description

This project description is intended for healthcare professionals and those interested in implementing this project

6 minutes for your health

Testing your own physical fitness

This simple self-test is designed as a preventive measure in tackling lifestyle diseases in the general public and as a test tool to evaluate the effect of treatment, rehabilitation and disease progression in people who are already suffering from lifestyle diseases and other conditions.

The test is also expected to motivate people to get physically active and improve their fitness.

Project author:

Iveta Petrová, M.D.
Kardio CZ s.r.o. Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Basic characteristics:

This simple and effective project is basically a walking trail along level terrain, fitted with information signage panels along its course. It is a pilot project that, as far as we know, has not been attempted anywhere else in Europe.

What is the point?

Taking a walk along the trail enables ordinary members of the public to test their fitness and their heart and lung function, or to evaluate the progress of their recovery following orthopaedic or other surgery – at any time of year.

Doctors can also encourage their patients to make use of the trail, and the test is of course completely free.

The trail has intentionally been located in the local park, so that members of the public come across it as they go about their daily lives. People can therefore test themselves quite anonymously, or repeat the test after a period of time, and then decide how to act on the result without any pressure.

For medical professionals, the 6-minute walk will provide an opportunity to translate research results into real life. At the same time, this simple test will provide them with useful information on the functional status of their patients‘ heart, lungs and cardiovascular system.

For ordinary people, it is an opportunity to become actively engaged in looking after their own health.

Is this method known and used elsewhere?

Yes, it is. This is technically known as the six minute walk test (6MWT).

In its standard form it is well-known to medical professionals and used frequently in a variety of medical disciplines to assess baseline physical condition and monitor changes over time. It is fairly common especially in the U.S.A. and English-speaking countries.

What is new though about the 6 minutes for your health project in our city is that it is a completely self-service tool, which means that everybody can take the test on their own, without any supervision. It is meant to be used by all members of the public – from children to senior citizens – and the results will be understandable to trained physicians practically everywhere.

Objective:

We hope that the results collected from the test will give us important insights into the severity of the patient’s disease, and doctors will then be able to act on that data in planning further treatment strategies.

The test is also a suitable screening tool that enables people to determine for themselves whether their heart and lungs are working normally, so high-risk patients can be effectively identified among the general public.

At the same time, we hope that healthy people will also use this test to kick-start their own physical activity and regular exercise and compare their test results over time. This is the other, primarily preventive and educational purpose of the project.

Other benefits:

The location of the trail in the heart of the city makes it an ideal destination to hold other health-related events aimed at disease prevention.

Note:

Successful testing of this pilot project will help create standards for the general public – standards which at present do not exist – and hopefully drive the adoption of the health trail by other cities.

In the past, this project has been supported by Professor Linhart, one of the leaders of the Czech Society of Cardiology, as well as by Professor Pohunek, the head of the Czech Initiative for Asthma, and by representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO).

©Iveta Petrová, M.D.

Important notice: This project is protected by trademark and copyright law , including all its parts. Any use outside the narrow limits of the law is punishable. It may not be reproduced in any manner without written permission of the author.