Impact of Face Masks on 6-Minute Walk Test in Healthy Volunteers

Kevin M Swiatek; Charnetta Lester; Nicole Ng; Saahil Golia; Janet Pinson; Dan Grinnan

doi:10.1177/2045894020988437

Impact of Face Masks on 6-Minute Walk Test in Healthy Volunteers

Pulm Circ. 2021 Jan 20;11(1):2045894020988437. doi: 10.1177/2045894020988437. eCollection 2021 Jan-Mar.

Authors

Kevin M Swiatek¹, Charnetta Lester¹, Nicole Ng², Saahil Golia¹, Janet Pinson¹, Dan Grinnan¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
² School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.

Abstract

Our objective was to establish the impact of wearing a face mask on the outcome of six-minute walk test in healthy volunteers. In a study of 20 healthy volunteers who each completed two 6MWTs, one with a mask and one without, there was no difference in distance walked. However, there was a significant difference in perception of dyspnea between the two groups.

Keywords: 6-miunte walk test; COVID-19; face mask; pulmonary hypertension.