Previous studies of health and wellbeing of the Hungarian adult population, such as the OLEF 2000 survey [1] primarily focused on illnesses, alcohol consumption, smoking habits, the use of health services and other health related costs. The follow-up surveys of Hungarostudy (2002–2006) [2] also used a questionnaire to examine economic and social parameters leading to premature deaths in Hungary. The study of Csite and Németh [3] examined the micro-regional inequalities of life expectancy at birth in millenial Hungary. Life expectancy without limitation predicted at birth in Hungary lags behind many other countries. According to 2019 WHO data,Hungary ranked in 76th place (67.4 year), behind the leading HongKong (82.2 year), Switzerland (81.9y), and Japan (81.4 year) [4]
According to the 2007–2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey estimating obesity, based on body mass index (BMI), Canadian adults have become heavier over the past quarter century. However, a comprehensive assessment of fitness measurements was also conducted, and this study provided upto-date estimates of fitness levels of Canadians aged 20 to 69 years. Results of that study compared to the estimates of 1981 has shown that mean scores of aerobic fitness, flexibility, muscular endurance and muscular strength declined at older ages, and BMI, waist circumference, skinfold measurements and waist-to-hip (WH) ratio increased. Males had higher scores than females for aerobic finess, muscular endurance and muscular strength; females had higher scores for flexibility. Muscular strength and flexibility decreased between 1981 and 2007–2009; BMI, waist circumference and skinfolds increased. Based on results of the fitness tests and anthropometric measurements, many Canadian adults face health risks due to suboptimal fitness levels [5].
The 6 minute walk test (6MWT) is a widely used field test to assess physical fitness even in clinical settings. However standards for the healthy adult population are sporadic. In Italy (2005) the effect of demographics and anthropometrics were investigated in healthy subjects (20–50 years) with the aid of the 6MWT according to the standardized approach provided by the ATS guidelines [6]. The aim was also to provide reference values of 6MWT, as the distance covered within 6 minutes and other variables like oxygen saturation (SpO2), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), and perception of breathlessness. In that study, a derived variable of the 6MWT was considered, the product of walking distance and body weight, mimicing the work of walking [6]. In a healthy North African population (older than 40 years) anthropometric data and 6MWT was measured [7]. The distance significantly correlated with gender, age, weight and height. The combination of these parameters explained 77% of the 6MWT variability in the equation. An additional group of adults was studied to validate the reference equation and it seems to be a reliable tool to predict health related fitness [8].
At Coventry University (UK) and at University of Porto (Portugal) European healthy adults (aged 50–85 years) have been studied [9]. Actual 6MWT performance was compared to predicted 6MWT in adults aged 50– 85 years (62 male, 63 female). In a second sample of adults (same age group, 74 male, 172 female), a new prediction equation for 6MWT performance was developed using allometric modelling. The equation was cross validated using the same sample the other prediction equations were compared with. They used a new equation different from the previous one just like, Alameri et al. [10], Iwama et al. [11], Gibbons et al. [12], Enright et al. [13], Masmoudi et al. [14] and Saad et al. [8] Results of the analysis indicated significant relationships between the actual distance and 6MWT predicted using all of the commonly available prediction equations. The strongest of these relationships was the Michael et al. [15] equation (r = 0.673) and the weakest the Alameri et al. [10] equation (r = 0.083). In the second stage of the analysis after log transformation, the log-linear model significantly predicted 6MWT from the body mass, height and age (p = 0.001, adjusted R2 = 0.526), predicting 52.6% of the variance in actual 6MWT from the equation, t-test between actual 6MWT and 6MWT predicted using this new equation was significant. The bias with the new equation was less (55.9 m) than for the other equations, as was the standard deviation of differences (62.3) and the coefficient of variation (11.2%). The slope parameter for age in this model was identical to the slope parameter for age in the sample the equation was developed indicating that a 0.9% reduction in 6MWT distance covered is associated with every year increase in age [9]. The 6MWT represents a high-intensity activity for the majority of middle-aged and older adults, and a strong correlation was found between VO₂max calculated in the 6MWT and in cardio-pulmonary testing showing that it is suitable for assessing aerobic functional exercise capacity in adult age groups [16].
Based on these findings the aim of our study was to measure the health related fitness of a Hungarian adult population with the aid of 6MWT, and correlate their performance with their anthropological data.