Dr. Betty Murray explains the one-legged stand test, a simple way to assess fall risk and aging health. About 95% of people aged 51-55 can balance for 10 seconds, but fewer than half of those 71-77 can. Inability to hold it links to an 82% higher risk of death and loss of independence.
there are things that people can track in themselves with themselves, and that I would do clinically that have nothing to do with a blood test or running a test on a machine. And one of those is the one-legged stand test. So research has shown that if people can stand on one leg for 5 seconds or even more determinate as 10 seconds, they have a lower risk of reducing of falls, you know, fractures, mortality, you know, being able, they haven't, they, if they can stand that long, they're, they have more likely to be able to age and be able to take care of themselves and live independently. And so a study looked at, you know, people 51 to 55 and 95% of them could stand on one leg for 10 seconds. By the time they were 71 to 77, less than half could. And those that couldn't had an 82% increased risk for you know, dying and, and losing their, their independence as well.
