People who could not stand with one foot for 10 seconds had almost twice the risk of death over the next 7 years (HR 1.84, 95% CI 1.23-2.78, P <0.001), after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, and comorbidities, said Claudio Gil Araujo, MD, PhD, of the Clinimex Medicina do Exercicio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and co-authors in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Previous research has linked standing time to one leg, a measure of posture instability, to cognitive impairment and asymptomatic cerebrovascular damage. But overall, there is little research linking one-legged posture to clinical results other than falls, Araujo and colleagues point out. “The advantages of the 10-second one-leg standing test include that it is simple and provides fast, safe and objective feedback to the patient and healthcare providers on static balance,” Araujo told MedPage Today. “It can easily be incorporated into the routine of most clinical visits, especially for older adults,” he added. “It is important that the results of the 10-second one-legged posture add useful information on the risk of mortality in middle-aged and elderly men and women beyond the usual clinical data.” The researchers included 1,702 participants aged 51 to 75 years in the Clinimex Exercise cohort study, which began in 1994 to assess fitness, health and cardiovascular risk factors. Participants had a mean age of 61.7 years at their first screening from February 2009 to December 2020 and most (68%) were male. Only people with stable gait were included in the study. As part of the test, participants were asked to stand on one leg for 10 seconds without additional support. Barefoot participants were asked to place the front of their free foot on the back of the opposite lower foot, keeping their hands below the sides while looking straight ahead. Up to three attempts with both feet were allowed. Overall, 20.4% of participants failed the 10-second test. The failure rate increased with age: it was 4.7% at the age of 51 to 55, 8.1% at the age of 56 to 60, 17.8% at the age of 61 to 65 and 36.8% at the age of 66 in elderly 70 years. More than half of these ages 71-75 (53.6%) were unable to complete the test. During a mean follow-up of 7 years, 7.2% of participants died, including 4.6% of those who were able to complete the test and 17.5% of those who could not. Adjusting only for age, the HR for mortality from each cause was 2.18 (95% CI 1.48-3.22, P <0.001). “It is very surprising that the magnitude of the difference in HR between age-adjusted and multivariate mortality was so small,” Araujo said. Those who failed the test generally had worse health: a higher percentage were obese or had heart disease, hypertension or dyslipidemia. Type 2 diabetes was threefold in this group. The study was observational and could not prove the cause, Araujo and colleagues acknowledged. All participants were white Brazilians and the results may not apply to other populations. In addition, potentially confounding factors such as recent history of falls, physical activity levels, diet, smoking, and medication use may have affected the results.
Judy George covers neuroscience and neuroscience news for MedPage Today, writing about brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis, rare diseases, epilepsy, autism, headache, Parkinson’s, ALS, concussion, CTE, sleep, pain and more. Follow
Revelations This study received partial funding from CNPq and FAPERJ research organizations.
