Steady feet reveals longevity
A little unsteady after bending over to pick something up from the floor? Brazilian researchers now claim assessing whether you can stand up from the floor without using your hands of knees may determine how long you will live. The study revealed people who need to use their hands or knees to stand up are five to six times more likely to die than those who can rise unaided.
A little unsteady after bending over to pick something up from the floor? Brazilian researchers now claim assessing whether you can stand up from the floor without using your hands or knees may determine how long you will live.
The study revealed people who need to use their hands or knees to stand up are five to six
times more likely to die than those who can rise unaided.
Based on their evidence, researchers have created a test that can give a quick indication
of a person’s muscle and bone strength from which they can predict how long they will live.
“If a middle aged or older man or woman can sit on, and rise from the floor using just one
hand – or even better without the help of a hand – they are not only in the higher quartile
of musculoskeletal fitness but their survival prognosis is probably better than those
unable to do so,” study researcher Claudio Gil Araujo, from Gama Filho University in Rio de
Janeiro, said in a statement.
To measure the test’s accuracy, Mr Araujo and his colleagues recruited more than 2,000
people aged between 51 and 80 years to study for six years.
They were instructed to sit on the floor then attempt to stand without using their hands or
knees. They were given a score out of 10, with a point subtracted every time they used a
hand, knee or other body part for support when they were sitting and standing.
During the course of the study, 159 people died, most of who had low test scores, between
zero and three.
After the researchers accounted for the participants’ age, gender and weight, they
discovered people with low scores were five to six times more likely to die in the study
period than those who scored eight or above.
“It is well known that aerobic fitness is strongly related to survival, but our study also
shows maintaining high levels of body flexibility, muscle strength, power to body weight
ratio and coordination are not only good for performing daily activities but also have a
favourable influence on life expectancy,” Mr Araujo said.
The study was published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention.
