Death Risk Linked to Poor Motor Function in Elders

Poor physical function (motor functions) increases the risk of death in elders above 65 years, finds a study published in the journal The BMJ . The signs of physical activity decline are difficulty in getting up from a chair or getting dressed and these signs usually emerge 10 years before death. The study also finds that the mental (cognitive) skills start to decline 15 years prior to death. The researchers examined various measures of motor function and their association with mortality for 10 years on individuals over 65 years of age. In the study motor skills like walking speed,chair rise time, grip strength, cooking, grocery shopping and usage of toilet were noted.
The results showed that:

•Mortality risk was about 22% in people with poor walking speed,15% with poor grip strength and 14% with poor chair rise time.

•The death risk was about 30% among elders who had difficulties in doing their daily life activities.

The patterns changed between participants who died and those who survived. The participants who had poor chair rise time died 10 years before the survivors while those who reported poor self functioning died 7 years earlier and those who had difficulties with daily activities died 4 year earlier.

The study says that this “adds to the sparse literature on terminal decline in motor function and, to our knowledge, is the first to examine terminal and age related long term trajectories of multiple measures of motor function.”

This is an observational study where there are limitations and it is difficult to examine the trajectories of motor function in certain minority groups and it does not take into account the events like fall and hospital admissions.

The authors say that “early detection of changes in motor function might offer opportunities for prevention and targeted interventions,” what these interventions would be and what specifically they would be aiming to achieve is unclear, they note. “Despite the focus on death as an outcome in these analyses, our goal should always be to add life to years, not just years to life.”

Source: Medindia