Estimation of running capacity can likely be removed from questionnaires estimating walking impairment in patients with claudication

OBJECTIVE: The Estimating Ambulation Capacity by History-Questionnaire (EACH-Q) and the Walking Impairment Questionnaire (WIQ) are used to estimate maximal walking distance (MWD). The EACH-Q and WIQ included 4 and 14 items respectively, among which one item dealing with running capacity. We hypothesised that this item was of little interest in patients with claudication. DESIGN: The WIQ and EACH-Q were self-completed and corrected before a constant load (3.2 km h(-1); 10% slope) treadmill tests, maximised to 15 min. PATIENTS: 371 patients (298 males/73 females, 62.9 +/- 11.2 years). METHODS: The number of errors (duplicate, absent or paradoxical answers to one item) and correlation of questionnaire scores with MWD on treadmill were calculated, before and after skipping the answer to the running item. RESULTS: The proportion of questionnaires with errors was 27% with the EACH-Q and 48% with the WIQ. Two-hundred and twenty-one (59.6%) and 245 (66%) out of 371 patients reported to be unable to run, for the EACH-Q and WIQ, respectively. The rate of errors was reduced by 15% for the EACH-Q (p < 0.05) when skipping the running item for scoring. The correlation coefficients between the MWD and the questionnaire scores were 0.449 and 0.485 for the EACH-Q and were 0.571 and 0.572 for the WIQ, before and after skipping the running item, respectively. CONCLUSION: Most of our patients reported to be unable to run and skipping the running item reduce the rate of errors in self-completing the questionnaires without impairing the correlation of questionnaire scores with treadmill results. It is likely that the running item could be removed from the WIQ and EACH-Q questionnaires