There is a significant increase in the prevalence of elderly people worldwide. Changes associated with aging are observed in systems such as the musculoskeletal, nervous, somatosensory, visual, vestibular, and cardiorespiratory, besides the cognitive changes.1,2 The manifestation of poor health in this population is commonly represented by the loss of functioning, decrease in the autonomy of mobility until the onset of dependence and disability.2,3

Difficulties in performing activities of daily living (ADLs) start early and impact their quality of life.4 Functional capacity can be defined as the efficiency of the elderly to performphysical demands, which include basic activities for an independent life until more complex actions from the daily routine.5

A growing number of physical performance and muscle strength tests have been developed to provide objective results, being more sensitive to changes and measuring standardized and specific tasks. 3

Many tests can evaluate functional capacity. Among the most used instruments, the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) as standardized according to the American Thoracic Society is widely adopted by clinicians and researchers. This test is reliable, safe and provides a global and integrated answer about all systems involved in exercise.5,6 However, a 30-meter corridor is required, and physical space can be a barrier.

In the last years, the rising use of simpler functional tests to assess functional capacity has been observed. The 4-meter-gait-speed (GS), Sit-to-stand (STS), and Timed-up-and-go (TUG) are some examples of faster functional tests which also require lower physical space than the 6MWT to assess the elderly and nowadays are also used in patients with chronic respiratory and cardiac diseases.7,8

All these instruments to assess functional capacity have been associated with important clinical conditions that are not directly related to the physical domain, such as inflammation or oxidative stress. Interestingly, these instruments also presented predictive capacity for negative health-related outcomes such as falls, disability, hospitalization and mortality. For these reasons, they are of interest to clinicians and researchers aiming at screening those people in risk zones as well as to diagnose physically deconditioned older adults.4

Many studies have compared the applicability of simple functional tests to 6MWT in patients with chronic cardiac and respiratory diseases, but this is scarcer in elderly adults.9,10 It was therefore hypothesized that simple functional tests could be used to identify low exercise capacity (as assessed by the 6MWT as <80 % predicted) by objective cutoff values of simples functional tests, which could be provided to help clinicians to interpret results obtained in the assessment of older adults.