January 24, 2013
At a recent family gathering, I had fun demonstrating how to sit down on the floor and then stand back up without letting anything other than the bottoms of my feet and my butt touch the ground. Then several of my sisters-in-law tried it (after wisely taking off their high heels and slippery stockings), and after a few attempts, they could do it, too. So we all high-fived each other—because our success at this simple test suggests that we might enjoy good longevity, according to recent research.Here's the scoop: For the study, 2,002 women and men between the ages of 51 and 80 were asked to use the least amount of support possible as they first lowered themselves down to sit on the floor and then rose to stand again. They didn't worry about going fast, because speed was not the point of the test.
Each participant started with five points for the sitting-down process and another five points for the standing-up process. One point was taken off for each support a participant used, such as going down onto one knee…pushing off the floor with one hand…or bracing a forearm against a thigh. A half-point was taken off if the evaluator noticed any unsteadiness. Crossing the legs at the ankles to get down and/or back up was acceptable and did not lead to lost points (which was good news to me, since that's how I do it). Participants were allowed several tries, and their best scores were the ones used for the analysis. The top possible score earned by the most agile participants was 10, while those who could not get down or back up at all scored zero.
After the test, participants were followed for an average of 6.3 years to see who lived and who did not. During the follow-up period, 7.9% of participants died.
Findings: Compared with people who scored eight or higher on the sit/stand test, the risk for death was nearly twice as high among those who scored from 6.0 to 7.5…more than three times higher for those who scored from 3.5 to 5.5…and more than five times higher for those who scored from zero to 3.0. Remarkably, each one-point increase in score was associated with a 21% improvement in the odds of survival. The results held even after researchers adjusted for various factors that affect physical functioning, including age, gender and body mass index.
The connection doesn't seem far-fetched when you think of all that's involved in getting yourself down into a floor-sitting position and then standing back up again. After all, those maneuvers depend on strength, coordination, stability, flexibility, balance and not being overweight or obese—all of which are indicators of physical well-being and function (as you'll notice next time you need to get down on the floor to retrieve an item you dropped).
Admittedly, this test gets harder to ace with age. According to the researchers' database, a score of eight or higher was earned by 88% of girls under age 20…46% of women ages 51 to 55…and 23% of women ages 61 to 65. Still, it's encouraging to note that 7% of women ages 61 to 65 achieved a perfect score of 10.
Want to try this simple test? It is best to have a health-care professional test you, the researchers noted. But if that is not feasible, for safety's sake, get your doctor's OK first, then try the maneuver on a flat, nonslippery surface. Wear nonrestrictive clothing…opt for bare feet as a safeguard against slipping…and take whatever other precautions you might need to prevent a fall. (For a video demo, click below. The audio portion is in Portuguese because the study was done in Brazil, but there are English subtitles.)
If your score turns out to be disappointing, discuss with your doctor the possible steps you could take to improve your physical condition. You might wind up improving your longevity!
Source: Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, MD, PhD, is the medical director at Clinimex Exercise Medicine Clinic and a professor of sports medicine at Gama Filho University, both in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and senior author of a study on the link between a sitting test and longevity published in European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Source: Sit Down to See How Long You'll Live?
