Falls send tens of thousands of older adults to the emergency room every single year, and in some instances the fall can even be deadly. Working to improve your balance and ankle strength can help to reduce your risk of a fall, but being aware that you may be at risk of a painful fall can also help you stay upright. According to a new study, a simple test that you can perform from the comfort of your home can assess your fall risk.
Balance Test
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic here in Minnesota wanted to get a better understanding of a person’s fall risk, so they took some simple measurements and conducted a few tests to see if there were any obvious indicators of a person’s fall risk. For the study, researchers recruited 40 healthy men and women, with half the group between the ages of 50 and 65 and the other half older than 65. The participants were then put through a series of tests to assess their balance, walking gait, grip and knee strength.
For the balance portion, participants were asked to stand on a device that measured how much they shifted their weight. They were told to stand for up to thirty seconds on the platform in each of the following positions:
- Standing on both feet with eyes open
- Standing on both feet with eyes closed
- Standing on only dominant leg with eyes open
- Standing on only non-dominant leg with eyes open
Not surprisingly, a person’s inability to balance on one leg for an extended period was associated with an elevated fall risk.
“If you have poor balance, you’re more likely to fall,” said Kenton Kaufman, the senior author of the study and a musculoskeletal research professor at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. A person’s ability to maintain balance on one leg is “an important predictor,” of someone’s fall risk, he said.
Researchers found that on average, study participants could stand on their nondominant leg for 17 seconds, while those above the age of 65 could do so for an average of 11 seconds. Being well below those averages puts an individual at an increased fall risk.
“If you can’t stand on your leg for five seconds, you’re at risk of falls,” Kaufman said. “If a person can stand on their leg for 30 seconds, they’re doing really well, especially if they’re older.”
If you’re interested in learning more about your fall risk, consider seeing how long you can balance on each of your legs, just be sure to do so in a safe environment. We don’t want anyone tipping over and suffering a painful fall while testing their fall risk! Conduct the test near a counter or table that you can grab on to for support the moment you begin to lose you balance.