Stay Active, Stay Upright: Study Shows Exercise Cuts Fall Risks for Older Women

A recent study has shared new findings that are drawing attention: staying active could mean fewer tumbles and injuries for older women. Reports of falls and the injuries that sometimes follow are not unusual among the elderly, but what's not as clear is whether being physically active can help prevent these incidents.

The journal describes a study focused on ladies who were enjoying their golden years, specifically those born between 1946 and 1951. Researchers looked back at responses from thousands of these women, who had filled out health surveys in the years 2016 and 2019 when they were between the ages of 65 and 73. They wanted to understand if there was a link between the amount and type of physical activity these women did in their leisure time and their experiences with falls that either did or didn't lead to injuries.

The activities considered were those that got the women moving, like walking briskly or doing something a bit more energetic. The levels of activity were categorized based on how many minutes a week the women spent on these activities - either less than 150 minutes, between 150 and 300 minutes, or more than 300 minutes.

The core of their investigation was the comparison of two types of falls: those that hurt enough to cause an injury and those that didn't. By using a statistical method called directed acyclic graph–informed multinomial logistic regression, they could see how the odds of having a fall changed with different levels of physical activity.

What did they find? The study, which involved 7,139 women with an average age of 67.7 years, showed some promising signs. Women who got at least the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization —which is 150 to under 300 minutes of physical activity per week—had a lower chance of experiencing falls that didn't injure them. Not surprisingly, those who were even more active, doing 300 minutes or more per week, also saw lower rates of both noninjurious and injurious falls compared to women who didn't engage in leisure-time physical activity.

These findings could have a big influence on how we encourage older women to stay active. For those who help take care of our elderly population, discussions around exercise might now include not just its general health benefits but also its potential to keep older individuals safe from harm.