Standing 10 seconds on one leg, can you do it? What this says about your overall health

• An inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds is an indicator of general health

• other indicators of overall health include grip strength and walking speed

• a fall in the elderly person is linked to early mortality in the preceding 10 years

  According to the latest statistics from the World Health Organisation, a fall is the second leading cause of unintentional injury and death worldwide. Of these falls, the majority are people over 60 years of age.

  As we age, inevitably we loose some of our faculties, and one of these things is our balance.

  Quick statistics

  Risk factors for a fall:

  being over 60 years of age

  having already had a fall previously

  certain medications

  poor mobility, cognition, and vision

  underlying medical conditions, such as neurological, cardiac or other disabling conditions

  certain environments

  foot pain

  Falls prevention is something that I am quite interested and passionate about. Having worked in hospitals seeing patients just after a fall, to within the community at exercise programs, I have seen the impact that a fall has on a persons life and the fear of falling that dominates someone’s mind after the event.

  My own beautiful grandmother Daphne years before she died, had a fall while at home and broke her hip. This was devastating for my grandmother as it marked the beginning of a decline in mobility, loss of independence and impacted her quality of life greatly. Why? because my nan liked to go out, even a visit to the cafe for a coffee and piece of lamington, was a cause for occasion. After her fall, she never had the same confidence going out and about and became more restricted at home. Every effort was made to help her recovery, but it was this fear and memory of events that had passed which couldn’t be erased. Did she confide this to me? no, I know this however from the many patients I see in practice, the one thing they fear the most is another fall.

  Years ago, I ran a falls prevention program funded by the NSW government called Stepping On. A great program that still runs today across the country and the United States have adopted it as well, which your health practitioner (including a physio) can refer you for. Statistically it reduces a persons falls risk by 31%. This is unique as you won’t find other falls prevention programs, and there are many of them, that are supported by clinical trials. It’s also free, let me say that again, FREE! I loved running this course, partly because of the people I met, learning their stories, and seeing the impact that the program had on them in terms of confidence. But it also reminded me of Daphne, and that feeling of being connected with someone even though they are gone is special.

  Part of the intervention I introduce with patients and falls risk assessment is, how to negotiate your fear of falling. What to do if you fall, and let’s practice. I most recently had a patient in my clinic who, yes you guessed it, was afraid of falling. One of the things we practiced was how to get up off the floor, or to a phone, if you fall. It was a surreal experience asking an elderly patient to get down and up from the floor, but I realised that if given the opportunity, we all have something to learn and it is only our perceptions of, in this case the elderly, that limits what interventions are being offered.

  If you’re interested in falls prevention or Stepping On, feel free to contact us via our social media platforms.

  Sam and Andy

Daphne Veale (my grandmother) as a little girl on the left