Three quick tests to find out if you are at risk of falling

 If your therapist gives you these tests and you don't have followup interventions to prevent falls; then you don't have a functioning therapist.

Three quick tests to find out if you are at risk of falling

Balance, Tests / By Kyoko Yamada

It takes less than three minutes to complete these!

First Test: Single leg stance or “One-legged stance test”

1. Performed with eyes open and arms on the hips.
2. The participant must stand unassisted on one leg and is timed in seconds from the time one foot is flexed off the floor to the time when it touches the ground or the standing leg or an arm leaves the hip.
3. Participants unable to perform the one-leg stand for at least 5 seconds are at increased risk for injurious fall.
   

On my good leg I can do this, my bad leg not even close. Since I haven't been able to do this since my stroke at age 50 I guess I should have died sometime in the ensuing 18 years. I thought the Berg Balance Scale testing  that was common, was totally worthless since there never was any specific therapy given to address the failure points I had in that test.

 

Second Test: Timed Up and Go (TUG) text

1. The participants wear their regular footwear and can use a walking aid if needed. Begin by having them sit back in a standard arm chair and identify a line 3 meters or 10 feet away on the floor.
2. With the cue of “GO”, the participants stand up from the chair, walk to the line on the floor at your NORMAL pace, turn, walk back to the chair at your NORMAL pace, then sit down again.
3. Time the pace of walking
4. An older adult who takes more than 12 seconds to complete the TUG is at high risk for falling.

I could easily do this while still in the hospital.

Third Test: Functional Reach Test

1. The participant stands side way against a wall where you keep a yard stick at the shoulder level. He/she stands with his/her feet shoulder apart with one arm flexed at 90 degree at the shoulder level with elbow straight.
2. Measure an initial reading on the yard stick.
3. Ask the participant to reach forward as much as he/she can to reach.
4. Measure the final reading on the yard stick. The initial reading is subtracted from the final to obtain the functional reach score.
5. A score of 6 or less inches indicates a significant increased rick of falls.
6. A score between 6-10 inches indicates a moderate risk for falls.

I can do about 12 inches.