If you’re having trouble standing on one leg, it could be a sign of something more serious than exaggerating at the office summer cup party. Research suggests that middle-aged and elderly people who cannot balance on one leg for 10 seconds are almost twice as likely to die in 10 years as those who can.
A person’s good balance can provide insight into their health. Previous research, for example, indicates that the inability to balance in one leg is associated with an increased risk of stroke. People with poor balance have also been found to perform worse on tests of mental decline, suggesting a link to dementia.
An international panel of experts from the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Finland, and Brazil has now completed a 12-year study, the first of its kind, examining the relationship between balance and mortality. Although the investigation was observational and cannot establish the cause, its findings were astonishing.
The inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds during the middle or later life is associated with almost doubling the risk of death from any cause in the next 10 years. The results were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The findings are so compelling that researchers, led by Dr. Claudio Gil Araujo of the Clinimex Exercise Medicine Clinic in Rio de Janeiro, suggest that a balance test should be included in routine health checks. the elderly.
Unlike aerobic fitness, muscle strength, and flexibility, balance tends to be well-maintained until the sixth decade of life, when it begins to decline relatively quickly. However, the assessment of balance is not usually included in the health checks of middle-aged and older people, possibly because there is no standardized test. Until now, there was little hard data linking balance to clinical outcomes other than falls.
A total of 1,702 people between the ages of 51 and 75 with a steady gait were followed between 2008 and 2020 for the study. Initially, participants were asked to stand on one leg for 10 seconds without any additional support. To standardize the test, participants were asked to place the front of the free foot on the back of the opposite leg while keeping their arms at their sides and their gaze fixed forward. Up to three attempts were allowed on each foot.
One in five (21%) failed the test. Over the next decade, 123 died of various causes. After considering age, sex, and underlying conditions, the inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds was associated with an 84% risk of death from any cause.
The researchers said the study had limitations, including that the participants were all white Brazilians, meaning the findings may not be more widely applicable to other ethnicities and nations.
However, the researchers concluded that the 10-second balance test “provides fast and objective feedback to the patient and healthcare professionals about static balance” and “adds useful information about the risk of mortality in middle-aged and elderly men and women “.