The "Walking Estimated Limitation Stated by History" (WELSH) visual tool is applicable and accurate to determine walking capacity, even in people with low literacy level.

ABSTRACT: Determination of the self-reported walking capacity by interview or standardized questionnaire is important. However, the existing questionnaires require the patient to be able to read and write in a specific language. We recently proposed the WELSH (Walking Estimated Limitation Stated by History) tool to be administrable to illiterate people. The main objective was to assess the applicability of WELSH tool in the community and in a large group. We performed a prospective study in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso during June 2020. We recruited 630 interviewers among medical students. They were trained to administer the WELSH, and to conduct a 6-minute walk test. We performed a Pearson's "r" correlation between the WELSH and maximal walking distance (MWD). Of the 1723 participants

SUBMITTER: Sempore WY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8757989 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature