Using a one-minute sit-to-stand test in healthy children is as reliable as doing a six-minute walking test in assessing cardiorespiratory response, according to new research.

The six-minute walking test is the reference field test of heart rate response during exercise, and has been validated in children, Dr Gregory Reychler of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and colleagues write in JAMA Pediatrics.

Sit-to-stand may offer an alternative, they add, but its validity and reliability in children has not been tested.

They recruited 52 children to perform two one-minute sit-to-stand tests a week apart and the six-minute walking test, as a reference test.