Do you monitor your activity with a fitness tracker like the Apple Watch or Fitbit?  If so, you may find the following scenario familiar. 

It’s 8pm and your tracker indicates you need 600 more steps to meet your target for the day. But, it’s dark outside, or the weather is horrible, or you can’t leave the house because of caregiving duties. Something spurs you to get up and walk around the room until you hit the target and get the little celebratory symbol on your wrist. 

This is one of the great benefits of such trackers, they give you little nudges throughout the day to take the small steps which can add up to bigger, better health outcomes.

But could such an approach work with fall reduction? After all, the causes of falls are multiple, many factors conspiring to come together, along with a dollop of (bad) luck. 

A recent study published October 2021 looked at exactly that. 

We put our Stability Scale (that measures balance and fall risk) into an independent living facility in Texas and a senior center for free use. The study did not provide any intervention or promote any treatment to the participants. The only thing participants received was access to the scale and their balance score. Scores range from 1-10, with 10 being the best. We tracked participants’ scores, frequency of testing and fall incidents. 

Members of this facility had access to both exercise and balance classes on site. Participation was self-determined and voluntary.

What we found was extraordinary. We saw a 74% reduction in actual falls in the time residents had access to the scale compared to the year before. 

“We saw a 74% reduction in actual falls”

We also saw that on average, it took 34 days for participants to move their balance score out of the high risk zone (score 1-3).

Rather than being a magic scale that miraculously reduces falls, the reduction in falls is attributed to improved awareness and lifestyle behavior change. Just like fitness trackers can motivate you to take extra steps in your room, measuring balance appears to be motivating people to take action to improve balance.  

Additional resources:

For exercises to help with balance, click here