Following on from previous articles where we looked at ability to perform normal everyday functions as being an important predictor of having a fall for older people, new research has shown the amount of pain someone is in will also be a key predictor. Which makes sense when you think about it – if you’re in pain, you’re probably not going to be walking properly, you might have a limp, favour one side, and thus be a bit off balance.
Basically what they found was that the more sites of pain …

In this study the investigators tried to assess which characteristics are related to the risk of being hospitalised in “older adults”. It has been established that as people get older they lose strength, but it is unclear whether having less muscle tissue necessarily means you are weaker per se, and it has also previously been unclear whether there are better ways to assess whether someone is at risk of being hospitalised. This study has answered those questions.
The goal of this study was to look at the link between “strength, function, …

We’ve previously looked at the effects of exercise on reducing the risk of falls in the elderly (HYPERLINK), following on from that I’d like to look at a couple of studies that examine the role of weight/resistance training on improving the physical function of “older adults” and then a study which has shown that having good physical function will reduce the risk of an “older adult” being hospitalised (HYPERLINK).
First up, the article on the benefits of resistance training. This was a Cochrane Review (http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab002759.html), and for those who don’t know …