back
|
 |
Tai Chi helps prevent falls in elderly
Massey
News, August 8, 2003
Tai Chi, a martial art form that enhances
balance and body awareness through slow, graceful and precise body
movements, can significantly reduce the risk of falls among older people,
says visiting American specialist Dr Steven Wolf.
Dr
Wolf is professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Emory
University in Atlanta and also director of a programme in restorative
neurology. Speaking to an invited audience on the Wellington campus, he
said older people taking part in Tai Chi programmes could reduce their
risk of falling by up to 47.5 percent.
Research
from American trials has demonstrated the value and cost-effectiveness of
targeted fall-prevention programmes and indicated the benefits of
integrated balance, coordination, and strength training for the elderly.
It is estimated that each year, falls are responsible for costs of more
than $12 billion in the United States.
Dr
Wolf said in multi-centre fall prevention trials in the US, elderly people
were asked what they were thinking of when they fell. “Repeatedly we
were told they didn’t know why they fell – they saw it happening but
they didn’t accept liability,” he said.
“
So perhaps an exercise form such as Tai Chi – which is so embedded in
visual imagery, which has this natural tie between the movement forms and
how they are engaged – can help people understand this very important
linkage of how they move, and how they position themselves. That’s the
hypothesis.”
Tai
Chi could be seen as a “powerful preventative medicine tool” for
people as they became older. Movements such as trunk and body rotation
were improved. Stability and balance were boosted. Tai Chi students had a
greatly improved sense of control over their own health, building the
confidence that led to more independent, and thus more fulfilling lives.
Dr
Wolf was visiting Wellington en route to the X1Xth Congress of the
International Society of Biomechanics in Dunedin, for which Dr Alan
Walmsley, of the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health in
Wellington, was co-convenor of the Organising Committee.
His
visit to New Zealand was also sponsored by the ACC, whose programme
manager, Alistair MacDonald, says Tai Chi is one part of an expanding
portfolio of evidence-based older adult fall prevention initiatives being
developed by ACC in partnership with the relevant stakeholder agencies.
Mr
MacDonald says falls are the most common cause of injury for older adults,
a sector of the New Zealand population that will double in size before the
middle of this century. Falls cost both ACC and Vote Health hundreds of
millions of dollars each year.
They
are the leading cause of injury-related hospitalisation in the
over-65-year-old population and account for about 4 percent of all
hospital admissions in this age group.
ACC-funded
Modified Tai Chi Fall Prevention programmes have been in operation in New
Zealand for more than four years and are set to expand. Programmes are
operating, being set up or are under negotiation in Northland, Auckland,
Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Horowhenua, Nelson,
Blenheim, Stoke, Richmond, Rangiora, Christchurch, Otago and Southland.
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use | Privacy
Policy | Contact Us
|
