From: Anna Sheridan
3 September 2013
Dear Queen Mary, University of London,
I am writing to request follow-up data for the 6 min walking
test,(as reported in the original PACE paper). I understand that you have 'follow-up data on 72% of participants for this test' (White et al. 2013, Psychological medicine, and 2011). I feel that having data for almost three quarters of participants will still be of value.
I request this information as both a scientist and as an ME patient. As a scientist, my principle aim is to gain a complete understanding of the effect of any proposed treatment. As an ME patient, the distance that I can walk is extremely important to me, and any improvement that can be offered through treatment is of great interest.
There are two parts to my request. Firstly, could you please supply the mean 6min walking test time for all those who took the measurement, and were deemed 'recovered' as per one of the measures in your follow-up paper in Psychological Medicine.
Secondly could you please also provide the standard deviation for the mean. I would also like this data to be broken down into therapy type.
Regarding the concerns expressed in your Psychological Medicine Response: The data I request will be compared only to the data already published in the PACE trail (2011) paper, therefore any differences in protocol compared to the literature at large, are not relevant. In addition, your directions to patients that `You should walk continuously if possible, but can slow down or stop if you need to.’ (White 2013), will, I presume have been unnecessary for, and had no impact on, the patients for whom I request data, since they are, as you have stated, 'recovered'.
Yours faithfully,
Anna Sheridan (Dr)