The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of walking exercise through a 6-min walking test on subjective
dyspnea, pulmonary function test, arterial blood gas analysis, and
activities of daily living to provide base data for the nursing intervention of
pneumoconiosis patients. The subjects were
pneumoconiosis patients men aged over 60. This quasi-experimental study was designed with a non-equivalent control group pre- and post-test design, and the study period was September to December 2013. Of the
pneumoconiosis inpatient subjects, 39 were assigned to the experimental group and the 39 to the control group. Only the experimental group was subjected to a 6-min walking test three times a week for 10 weeks. Subjective
dyspnea was measured based on anxiety about
dyspnea during and after the exercise. FEV1% prediction and FEV1/FVC% were used to measure the pulmonary function. The arterial blood gas was measured based on the pH, PaO2, PaCO2, and
activities of daily living. The data were analyzed through an χ(2) and t-test. The study results showed that the 6-min walking test reduced the anxiety about
dyspnea of the
pneumoconiosis patients during the exercise, moderated the
dyspnea index after the performance of the activities, and improved the patients' ability to perform
activities of daily living. Thus, walking exercise seems to be an effective nursing intervention to maintain the respiratory rehabilitation outcomes by minimizing the
pneumoconiosis patients' burden.