American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance

If you have a firm handshake, you just live longer than your fellow human.

According to a new study, it’s also helpful if you can walk and chew gum at the same time, leap from your chair during a scary movie or always win the three legged race at the family reunion, then well,

New studies from the BMJ (British Medical Journal) formed by UK researchers have discovered the relation between basic physical tasks and mortality.

Screening how well persons perform basic functions can determine those individuals who may benefit from targeted strength training programs as interventions used to improve longevity.

Four measures of physical capability including gripping, walking, rising from a chair and balancing on one leg were evaluated Simply stated, persons who are unable to perform such tasks at a high level have a higher risk of death.

In 53,476 persons that had grip strength analyzed, death rate among the weakest people, taking into consideration age, sex and weight, was 1.67 times greater than among the persons with a stronger grip.

Slow walkers in a group of 14,692 participants had a 2.87 times great mortality rate than their more brisk counterparts.

Almost 50% increase in the rate of death was found in 28,036 people that rose out of their chairs slower than the other half of the group.

The association of grip strength with mortality was detected in younger populations although the studies covered an older population according to the research. The authors say that a steep decline in physical capability may be a better predictor of mortality than is the absolute level at a single point in time.

Tags: aging, long term care cost, long-term care insurance

This entry was posted on Friday, September 10th, 2010. Trackback from your own site.