Measurement properties of the six-minute pegboard and ring test (6PBRT) in healthy adolescents

Abstract Objectives To investigate the cardiorespiratory responses to the 6-min pegboard and ring test (6PBRT) and to assess its reproducibility in healthy adolescents. Methods It was a cross-sectional study with 52 healthy adolescents (11–18 years old of both genders). The 6PBRT was performed twice on two different days by the same examiner. Intra-rater reliability, percentage of the minimal difference chance (MDC%) and agreement of the number of moving rings were analyzed. Also, cardiopulmonary parameters were collected before and after tests. Results Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for the number of rings moved was 0.87 (95%CI 0.69–0.93). The mean number of moved rings during the second test was higher. The MDC% with a 95 % confidence interval was greater than acceptable values. Bland-Altman analysis did not show agreement between measurements (bias = 30.1); with upper and lower limits of agreement of −67.8 to 127.9, respectively. There was a significant increase in dyspnea, fatigue and HR values at the end of the tests (p  Conclusion Together, the results suggest that the 6PBRT is not a reliable measure for a population of healthy adolescents, which indicates the necessity to perform more than one test. The 6PBRT is suggested to be a submaximal test for this population.