Risk of falling among older women engaged in exercise for balance is reduced 20 %
Older women who exercise for balance for two years are 20 % less likely to fall.
The program, which the women take at more than 75 years of age, also saw the women walking better compared to their peers who didn’t subscribe to the training, and reported a higher quality of life.
“We found that the Ossébo exercise program was effective in reducing injurious falls and in improving both measured and perceived physical function,” said lead author Fabienne El-Khoury of the Pierre Louis Institute for Epidemiology and Public Health in Paris.
Past research has shown that balance training can help prevent falls among older people, she said. The study team wanted to examine the feasibility of a large scale, long-term exercise program that would be safe and effective, even among at-risk adults aged over 75, she said.
Around one in three people over the age of 65 experience a fall each year, according to the World Health Organization.
“Falls result in loss of confidence and restriction of physical activity. More seriously, a proportion of falls will result in serious and life changing injuries,” Julie Whitney, a physiotherapist at Kings College Hospital in London, said.
The researchers recruited 706 women aged 75 to 85 years old, who lived in their own homes and had reduced balance and walking abilities. The participants were randomly assigned to the exercise program or to a control group, with about 350 women in each group.
Women in the control group got literature about bone health and fall-prevention, and were offered the option to join the exercise program at the end of the study.
The training program took place at 20 study sites in 16 cities throughout France.
It consisted of weekly supervised group sessions of balance training supplemented by individually prescribed home exercises. The exercises involved stretches to increase flexibility, group play with a ball to improve reaction time, and hip, knee and ankle strengthening exercises.
Participants also practiced balance exercises that included knee bends, backward walking and sit-to-stand exercises.
The research team recorded how many times women experienced falls resulting in moderate or severe injuries and tested the subjects on their balance and motor functioning. The participants also rated their own fear of falling, physical activity level and health-related quality of life.
The control group experienced 397 injurious falls (by 189 women), while women participating in the balance training had 305 falls (170 women).
Of all fall-related injuries, 14 % were fractures and 8 % were other serious injuries.
Over the two-year program, the rate of moderate and severe injurious falls was 19 % lower in the balance training group than in the control group, with differences the two groups beginning to emerge after the first three to four months of training.
The women doing balance exercises also performed significantly better on balance and walking tests at both the one- and two-year marks, El Khoury’s team reports in the journal BMJ.
Fear of falling increased in both groups over the two-year study period and self-rated quality of life decreased in both groups, but these effects were less pronounced among the women involved in the exercise program.
El-Khoury noted that the protection against fear of falling is important, as this fear can lead to restricted physical activity and is itself a risk factor for falling.
Women are more likely to develop a fear of falling, and are more at risk of injury “partly because of the gender differences in muscle and lower body strength . . . often caused by inactivity,” El-Khoury said.
For people seeking to avoid falls, Whitney recommends keeping active and following a routine that promotes balance. “For people with established balance problems or a history of falls, these exercises should be prescribed by an appropriately trained professional,” she said.
“Good exercise habits can be started at any age, nobody is too young or too old to benefit,” Whitney said.