DOI: 10.12809/hkmj154593
© Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Obesity management is also part of fall prevention
Martin Hofmeister, PhD (Dr. oec. troph.)
Consumer Centre of the German Federal State of Bavaria,
Department Food and Nutrition,
Mozartstraße 9,
D-80336 Munich, Germany
Corresponding author: Dr Martin Hofmeister (hofmeister@vzbayern.de)
Full
paper in PDF
To the Editor—I read with interest the article “Falls
prevention in the elderly: translating evidence into
practice” by Luk et al in the April 2015 issue of the
Hong Kong Medical Journal.1 As obese individuals
have a significantly higher risk of fall compared
with normal-weight elderly persons,2 I believe
weight status and waist circumference should be
considered when assessing fall risk.3 4 Multifactorial
fall prevention strategies should include the
prevention of osteosarcopenic obesity and thus, in
addition to regular physical exercise, should include
advice about an adequate diet for weight reduction,
as well as an appropriate dietary protein intake of
1.0 to 1.2 g/kg bodyweight/day.5 In my practice,
the introduction of two simple everyday exercises
has achieved very good results in the improvement
of muscle strength and dual-task performance
to reduce fall risk in obese individuals. In the first
instance, I ask patients to rise from a chair without
assistance (10-15 repetitions, 2 times a day). Second,
I make them balance along an imaginary or existing
line with a length of several metres twice a day, while
counting backwards in increments of 3 (ie 90, 87, 84,
etc). They then walk backwards along the same line.
References
1. Luk JK, Chan TY, Chan DK. Falls prevention in the elderly: translating evidence into practice. Hong Kong Med J 2015;21:165-9. Crossref
2. Mitchell RJ, Lord SR, Harvey LA, Close JC. Obesity and falls in older people: mediating effects of disease, sedentary behavior, mood, pain and medication use. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2015;60:52-8. Crossref
3. Ren J, Waclawczyk A, Hartfield D, et al. Analysis of fall injuries by body mass index. South Med J 2014;107:294-300. Crossref
4. Lin CH, Liao KC, Pu SJ, Chen YC, Liu MS. Associated factors for falls among the community-dwelling older people assessed by annual geriatric health examinations. PLoS One 2011;6:e18976. Crossref
5. Hita-Contreras F, Martínez-Amat A, Cruz-Díaz D, Pérez-López FR. Osteosarcopenic obesity and fall prevention strategies. Maturitas 2015;80:126-32. Crossref