NeuRA’s Prof Stephen Lord is featured in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reporting on research into fall risk and how elderly people may benefit from exercises designed to help maintain balance during everyday activities like getting out of a chair or avoiding obstacles on a sidewalk. Workouts that improve the ability to recover when balance is lost, so that trips or slips don’t turn into falls, may also be beneficial.

“Step training focused on improving gait and balance may help prevent falls among the elderly, a recent research review suggests.

The analysis of seven previous studies, with a combined total of 660 older adults, found that interventions to improve stepping skills cut the rate of falls roughly in half.

For fall prevention, elderly people may benefit from exercises designed to help maintain balance during everyday activities like getting out of a chair or avoiding obstacles on a sidewalk, said senior study author Stephen Lord. Workouts that improve the ability to recover when balance is lost so that trips or slips don’t turn into falls may also be beneficial, Lord added.”
Read more about the study here.