When we fall when we’re young, we just get back up again. But as older adults age those falls could lead to serious injuries or even death.
A recent study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that the lack of balance in those over 50 was related to a higher mortality rate.
The study suggests that those who are unable to stand on one leg for 10 seconds were more likely to pass away in the next 10 years than those who could.
“Balance quickly diminishes after the mid-50s increasing the risk for falls and other adverse health outcomes. Our aim was to assess whether the ability to complete a 10- s one-legged stance (10-second OLS) is associated with all-cause mortality and whether it adds relevant prognostic information beyond ordinary demographic, anthropometric and clinical data,” the study explains.
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The study was originally set up in 1994 to assess how measures of physical fitness could be correlated to other variables and risk factors.
About 1,702 participants from the original study were later evaluated between 2009 and 2020.
The participants were asked to stand on one leg without additional support for 10 seconds during their check-ups.
One in five people failed the test. The older people were, the higher the failure rate.
The rate of failure doubled at each five-year interval from 51 to 55 onward.
There was a death rate of about 17.5 percent of those who failed the test compared with 4.5 percent with passed.
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Causes of death included cancer, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and other things like COVID-19.
When accounting for age, sex, and health conditions, researchers determined that those who didn’t pass the 10-second leg test had an 84 percent higher chance of dying within the decade than those who passed.
But just because a study with multiple variables concluded such a thing doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s an accurate predictor of risk of death.
“The bottom line is poor physical fitness. In addition, of course, it is understood that poor balance is associated with falls. Aged people falling are at very high [risk] of major fractures and other related complications. This may also play a role in this higher mortality,” Dr Claudio Gil Araujo, lead author of the paper, told IFLScience.
“I think that poor nonaerobic fitness (normally associated with a sedentary lifestyle, but not always) is the background of most cases of frailty and it is well-known that being frail is strongly associated with a poor quality of life, less physical activity/exercise and so on.”
Araujo also explained that a one-legged posture is necessary for many daily tasks like getting out of the car or climbing the stairs.
So, people who are unable or afraid to do this are more likely to lose autonomy and succumb to a sedentary lifestyle.
Araujo insists that the 10-second OLS test should be given during health consultations along with height, weight, and blood pressure measurements.
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“The test has been remarkably safe, well-received by the participants, and importantly, simple to incorporate in our routine practice as it requires less than 1 or 2 minutes to be applied,” the study concluded.
You can check out the full study here.
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