How to Prevent Falls as You Age
As people get older, there is one constant message that many health professionals hear: “I don’t want to have a fall”. Exercise physiologist Jordan discusses who is most at risk of a fall, and how to prevent falls as you age.
Who Do Falls Affect?
Falls commonly affect older adults (aged 65 and older). If you are aged 65 or older, then you have a 1 in 3 chance of having a fall each year.
Why do falls affect this age group more than any other? Well if we do not stay physically active, our strength, balance and walking patterns can change as we get older and increase risk of having a fall.
Why Are Falls Such A Problem?
Falls are a common problem that can lead to further health complications. For every fall for older adults, 1 in 5 of these then require hospitalization. Falls are associated with injuries such as fractures, head injuries and a shorter life expectancy.
There are many factors that contribute to a fall, with the strongest predictors being a decrease in muscle strength, balance control and gait impairments (walking).
So how do You Prevent Falls as You Age?
Exercise! Exercise has been found to be an effective way to prevent falls in older adults. As mentioned earlier, if we do not stay physically active our bodies will decondition and become more susceptible to falls. However, staying physically active or even starting to exercise as an older adult will help to prevent falls.
Having a fall is a scary experience and it can lead to a fear of exercise and moving around. This fear can lead to people becoming less active as they want to be safe. Unfortunately, this can actually increase the risk of falling because when we’re not moving, we are losing strength and fitness which leads to us becoming more susceptible to falls.
How active should you be? The Australian National Physical Activity Guidelines recommend completing 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical exercise on most (if not all) days of the week for adults aged over 65. Additionally, these guidelines recommend that older adults should complete some form of balance training and they have some great tips to get you started!
What Type Of Exercise Should You Do to Prevent Falls?
Exercises that target strength, gait and balance appear to be the most effective ways to prevent falls. If you feel more likely to have a fall when you do a specific task, then performing functional exercise (task specific) is another great way to help.
Training balance can seem like a scary thing, as this training will look to put you into unstable situations and may increase your risk of falling during this training. However, this type of training has been shown to improve balance and decrease the risk of falls. Supervised exercise sessions can be a great way to minimize the risk of falling while attempting this type of training.
Need help getting started? Accredited Exercise Physiologists are trained to help people begin their exercise journey from many different starting points. We will help you work towards the goals that you want to work towards.
You could consider our new Strong and Stable Falls prevention class, run in the clinic on Mondays and Wednesdays. If you are interested please book here a 1:1 consultation with Jordan our exercise physiologist prior to joining the class or call us on 93978877 for more information.
Jordan Tripodi – Exercise Physiologist
References:
Sherrington, C., Fairhall, N., Wallbank, G., Tiedemann, A., Michaleff, Z. A., Howard, K., … & Lamb, S. (2020). Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community: an abridged Cochrane systematic review. British journal of sports medicine, 54(15), 885-891.
Department of Health and Aged Care (2021). Falls In The Elderly
Falls and the elderly – causes, treatments and prevention | healthdirect
