10-second balance test may predict how long you’ll live

For older adults, being able to balance briefly on one foot may predict how long they’ll live.

People who failed a 10-second balance test of standing on one foot were nearly 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 preserved until the sixth decade of life, after which it wanes precipitously, the Brazilian researchers noted.

Exactly why a loss of balance can predict risk of death is not yet known, said the study’s lead author, Dr. Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, a sports and exercise physician and director of research and education at the Exercise Medicine Clinic-CLINIMEX in Rio de Janeiro.

But poor balance and musculoskeletal fitness can be linked with frailty in older adults, Araújo wrote in an email.

“Aged people falling are in very high risk of major fractures and other related complications,” Araújo wrote. “This may play a role in the higher risk of mortality.”

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

“Remember that we regularly need to stay in a one-legged posture, to move out of a car, to climb or descend a step or stair and so on,” Araújo said.

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

How does balance predict longevity?

To explore whether a balance test might reveal insight into a person’s risk of death from any cause during the next decade, Araújo and his team reexamined data from the 1994 CLINIMEX Exercise cohort study, which assessed associations among physical fitness, cardiovascular risk factors, and the risk of developing poor health and dying.

Source: nbcnews.com