*According to a new study conducted by Brazilian researchers, if you can’t balance on one foot for 10 seconds you’re twice as likely to die in the next decade.
“If you are younger than 70 years, you are expected (as the majority of those at that age) to successfully complete the 10 seconds,” Dr. Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, the lead author of the study, tells USA TODAY. “For those older than 70 years of age, if you complete it, you are in better static balance status than your age-peers. …The advantages of the 10s OLS test include the fact that it is simple and it provides rapid, safe and objective feedback for the patient and health care providers regarding static balance.”
The peer-reviewed was published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Per the USA Today report, the study “determined that a person’s balance ability can be preserved into the sixth decade of one’s life – meaning it’s more broad of an indicator of life expectancy across age ranges than aerobic fitness, flexibility or muscle strength,” the outlet writes.
Dr. Araújo “said poor balance is linked to frailty in older adults and one’s musculoskeletal fitness is a prime indicator of declining health,” per the report.
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Here’s more from the article:
Researchers in the study zeroed in on 1,702 participants from ages 51 to 75 for the study, with the average age set at 61. Their first checkup – study participants were tracked starting in 2008 – collected data on their weight, waist size and measures of body fat. Only individuals who could walk steadily were included in their analysis. Then, the participants were all asked to stand on one leg for 10 seconds without holding onto anything for support. One in 5 failed the test.
The inability of participants to pass the balance test increased with age, while those with weight problems or diabetes were more likely to fail. The study’s finalized research factored in age, sex, BMI, history of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. The final results determined that the risk of death within a 10-year span was 1.84-fold higher in participants who failed the balance test versus those who passed it.
“This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause. As participants were all white Brazilians, the findings might not be more widely applicable to other ethnicities and nations, caution the researchers,” said Araújo.
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