Sprouting health chiropractic is not only a child friendly practice, we also look after older sprouts! One key area we look at especially is balance and fall risk! World Health Organization stated adults over 65 years of age suffer the greatest number of fatal falls.(1) Research pointed out that chronic musculoskeletal pain is associated with poor stability.(2) Poor stability is considered as a risk factor for falls as is very important for gait (walking)!(2) Chiropractors and other health professions use a sit-to-stand test to identify an individual’s ability to maintain balance, measure lower extremity strength, and assessment of fall risk.
Five Times Sit to Stand Test(FTSST) is a very easy test to try at home. All you need is a chair without arms, roughly 90 degree bend at the knee joint, and a stopwatch. Make sure someone is watching you while performing the test as a safety precaution. Simply cross your arms over your chest, sit up straight from a sitting position 5 times as quickly as you can, and measure the time on completion. The time exceeding the following can be considered to have worse than average performance: 11.4 sec (60 to 69 years), 12.6 sec. (70 to 79 years), and 14.8 sec. (80 to 89 years).(3) Research suggested further assessment if you excessed 12 seconds on completion.(4) Chiropractic care has a high level of evidence on chronic lower back pain management.(5) As well as a moderate level of evidence on other chronic musculoskeletal pain such as neck pain, headaches, shoulder pain, and lower extremities joint pain.(5) If you failed the FTSST, suffering from chronic pain, or generally have poor balance, talk to our chiropractors and see whether we can help manage your concerns, as there are other pathologies that may also affect your stability and balance. Reference 1. Organization WH. Falls 2018 [Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/falls#:~:text=Each%20year%20an%20estimated%20646,medical%20attention%20occur%20each%20year. 2. Kendall JC, Vindigni D, Polus BI, Azari MF, Harman SC. Effects of manual therapies on stability in people with musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review. Chiropractic & manual therapies. 2020;28(1):1-10. 3. Bohannon RW. Reference values for the five-repetition sit-to-stand test: a descriptive meta-analysis of data from elders. Perceptual and motor skills. 2006;103(1):215-22. 4. Tiedemann A, Shimada H, Sherrington C, Murray S, Lord S. The comparative ability of eight functional mobility tests for predicting falls in community-dwelling older people. Age and ageing. 2008;37(4):430-5. 5. Bronfort G, Haas M, Evans R, Leininger B, Triano J. Effectiveness of manual therapies: the UK evidence report. Chiropractic & osteopathy. 2010;18(1):1-33.
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One of the most common issues we see in our practice is low back pain. Often, these patients are presenting after a long struggle with low back pain and have invested their time and money into different modalities of care.
Chiropractic care has long been established as an effective nonpharmacological treatment for low back pain and is supported by several clinical practice guidelines. Opioid analgesic therapy is a commonly used prescription drug therapy for low back pain in older people. A recent study collected patient feedback comparing spinal manipulative therapy (as provided by chiropractors) and prescription drug therapy (as provided by medical practitioners) for the treatment of chronic low back pain in the older adult population. Generally, older adults who have received various treatments for low back pain report higher satisfaction with chiropractic care compared to medical care in the short term but there is less evidence for either type of care in the long term. A total of 195 older adults with chronic low back pain participated in a survey measuring patient satisfaction and health related quality of life. Of these participants, long-term recipients of spinal manipulative therapy had higher self-reported rates of health-related quality of life than the long-term recipients of prescription drug therapy. There still needs to be more research for this result to be conclusive but chiropractic care is an easily applicable method of care to aid in the management of low back without the use of pharmaceuticals.
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AuthorBlogs by the team at Sprouting Health Archives
April 2024
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