For older adults, being able to briefly balance on one foot can be a predictor of how long they will live.

People who fail a 10-second balance test standing on one foot are almost twice as likely to die in the next 10 years, according to a report published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Unlike aerobic fitness, flexibility and muscle strength, balance tends to be maintained until age 60, after which it decreases dramatically, the Brazilian researchers noted.

Exactly why loss of balance predicts the risk of death is unclear, said Dr. Claudio Gil Suarez de Araujo, lead author of the study and a sports and exercise physician and director of research and education at the Rio Sports Medicine Clinic-CLINIMEX. Genève.

But Araújo wrote in an email that poor balance and musculoskeletal health may be linked to frailty in older adults.

Older adults who fall are at very high risk for serious fractures and other related complications,” Araújo wrote. This can lead to a higher risk of death.”

Checking balance on one foot, even for those few seconds, can be a valuable way to determine someone’s risk of falling. A 2019 report found that deaths from falls are on the rise in the U.S. for people 75 or older.

“Keep in mind that we often need to stay in a one-legged position, getting out of a car, going up and down steps or stairs, etc.,” Araújo said.

Araújo and his colleagues have previously studied the link between exercise capacity and longevity. A 2016 study found that people’s ability to sit on the floor without using their hands or knees for support and then stand up predicted their risk of death over the next six years.

How does balance predict longevity?
To explore whether balance tests could reveal a person’s risk of dying from any cause within the next decade, Araújo and his team re-examined data from the 1994 CLINIMEX exercise cohort study, which assessed the association between physical health, cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease. risk of poor health and death.

In this new report, researchers looked at 1,702 participants aged 51 to 75 years (mean age 61) at the first study examination, collecting weight, waist circumference and body fat measurements. The researchers included in their analysis only people who were able to walk steadily.

At the first examination, participants were asked to stand on one leg for 10 seconds without holding onto anything to support themselves. Participants who were allowed three attempts were asked to place the front of the lifted food behind the weighted leg while holding their arms at their sides and looking straight ahead.

Overall, one in five failed the test.

Researchers noted that the number of people who failed the test rose with age. In general, people who failed the test tended to be in poorer health than those who passed, with higher rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and unhealthy blood cholesterol levels. Type 2 diabetes is three times more common in those who do not pass the test than in those who do.

After taking into account factors such as age, gender, BMI, history of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, the researchers found that participants who failed the balance test had a 1.84 times higher risk of dying over 10 years.

The good news, Araújo says, is that “it’s never too late to improve your balance with specific training. A few minutes a day – at home or at the gym – can be very helpful.”

Dr. John W. Rowe, professor of health policy and aging at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said studies like this provide a scientific basis for determining the types of measurements that help assess a person’s physical fitness. .

During physical exams, doctors typically check people’s hearts, lungs, cholesterol and blood pressure. But in most cases, they don’t measure people’s body size, Rowe said.

If a doctor determines that a patient has a balance problem, he or she can prescribe a procedure to help improve health and balance.

“If a doctor has a patient do a one-leg stand and the patient says, ‘What’s the benefit of that,’ the doctor can say there’s an article that shows this predicts life expectancy,” Rowe said.