A test has been developed in Brazil that can reportedly predict one’s risk of all-cause mortality. By examining how a person gets up from a seated position on a floor, the researchers say that can determine the risk of death.
The research team recruited 2,002 adults (51 to 80 years old) and watched them sit down on the floor, and then get up without any help. They were told not to worry about how fast they moved that what was important was sitting and rising with minimum support. Each movement was scored out of five. Each support used, like a hand or knee, meant one point was subtracted.
Over the course of the six years, 159 of the people in the test died—a mortality rate of 7.9%. Most of the deaths occurred in those who scored low in the sitting-rising test. Only two people who had died had scored perfectly in the test. When they accounted for other risk factors for death, they found that the simple test was a “significant predictor” of all-cause mortality.
If you score in the lower range, you have a five to six times greater risk of death. To read further into it, the more difficulty you have picking up an object on the floor, or getting up from a seated position, or getting out of bed, or bending over to pick up the newspaper, the greater your risk of all-cause mortality.
In fact, every point the subjects scored in the test was linked to a 21% reduced risk of death. Researchers speculated that not only is aerobic exercise related to survival, but that keeping high levels of flexibility, muscle strength, and coordination play a role in life expectancy as well (not to mention quality of life).
If you do struggle to get off the floor, consider how diet and exercise could help you gain strength and stability.
Sources for Today’s Articles:
This Simple Test Can Predict Your Risk of Death
Barbosa Barreto de Brito, L., et al., “Ability to sit and rise from the floor as a predictor of all-cause mortality,” European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention, published online December 13, 2012.