Article
Activity as a protecting factor for falls?
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Authors
Published: | December 18, 2006 |
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Outline
Text
Objective
The greater risk of falling in the elderly is often explained by age-related decrease of cognitive and physical abilities. Some studies show that this phenomenon is due to inactivity and reduced use of resources than a biological consequence [1]. Based on this idea, the present study investigated the risk of falling of physically active senoirs.
Methods
30 young (M = 25.37; SD = 3.13) and 28 old subjects (M = 65; SD = 3.56) with comparable physical activities took part in the study. Throughout the whole experiment subjects were walking on a treadmill. Walking speed was 1.2 m/sec for the young and 0.8 m/sec for the old.
While walking on a treadmill the subjects had to avoid unexpected obstacles as a single task (O_S) and with a concurrent signal-detection task (O_C). A two factor ANOVA tested, whether the group factor age and the repeated measure factor task had an effect on the number of obstacle contacts.
Results
We found a significant effect for the factor task on the number of obstacle contacts (O_C > O_S; p < .01). It was not possible to show a significant effect for the factor age ( p = .59).
Conclusions
Results indicate, that there is no greater risk of falling for physical active seniors. Hence, it seems advisable to implement physical activities in fall prevention programs.
References
- 1.
- Wahl HW, Tesch-Römer C. Interventionsgerontologie im deutschsprachigen Raum. Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie. 1998;31:76-88.