What is the relationship between fall prevention and mobility maintenance?

To put it simply, the two are never a sequential relationship of "who comes first, who comes last", nor is it a subordinate relationship of "who includes who". It is a symbiotic relationship that is two-way binding and mutually supportive - fall prevention can help you maintain your existing mobility without compromising it, and mobility maintenance can reduce the risk of falls from the root. If either end is missing, problems will easily arise.

I met a 68-year-old Aunt Zhang when I was doing elderly health intervention in the community. She used to dance for an hour every day and could walk two stops carrying ten kilograms of vegetables. She always said that her legs and feet were very nimble. She was not willing to install non-slip mats in the bathroom, and she also thought about doing muscle balance. Training is only for people with weak legs and feet. As a result, last winter when I went out to buy groceries, I stepped on a frozen vegetable leaf and broke my femoral neck. I lay down for three months before going off to the ground. Not to mention square dancing, I had to rest twice when I walked 500 meters. Most of my good mobility was lost.

After seeing many similar examples, I found that people actually have quite a lot of misconceptions about the two. Some people think that "to prevent falls, just walk carefully, and it has nothing to do with mobility." They usually leave a mess at home and forget to mop it up. They always think that they will not fall if they can walk and jump. Only when they actually fall do they realize that the loss of mobility caused by a serious fall may not be replenished after a year or two of practice.； Some people think, "If I practice my legs and balance well, I will never fall." Not to mention facilities such as non-slip mats and handrails, they don't even bother to deal with the exposed wire ends on the ground and the small bumps on the side of the steps. No matter how fast they react, they will always trip over their feet.

Not only are the general public controversial, academic research directions also have different focuses. Some teams have been tracking fall cases for a long time and believe that 80% of falls are caused by environmental factors. As long as anti-skid and handrails are in place to prevent falls, most risks can be avoided. Research data from some teams also shows that people with good muscle mass and good balance can quickly adjust their center of gravity to avoid falling even if they encounter small obstacles. Even if they do fall, they are less likely to suffer serious fractures.

Those of us who are doing front-line intervention feel that there is no need to compete. After all, when something goes wrong, no one cares whether it is caused by the environment or your own ability. Last year, we conducted a controlled experiment in the community and selected 120 elderly people with mild mobility deterioration. Half only underwent aging-friendly home modifications, half only performed muscle balance training twice a week, and the rest did both at the same time. After half a year, the fall incidence rate of the group doing both at the same time was 62% lower than that of the group that only did one. The effect was not even half a star.

To put it bluntly, it is easy to understand. You treat your mobility as your daily mobile phone. You usually practice muscle training, balance and maintenance to replenish battery life and upgrade the system of the mobile phone to make it easier to use. Various measures to prevent falls are the anti-fall case and tempered film of the mobile phone, which can help you catch an accident. You can't put the most expensive film on your mobile phone while soaking it in water every day. You can't just upgrade the mobile phone's system and throw it on the cement floor without even a case, right?

If you really want to apply it to yourself, you don’t have to make it too complicated. Don’t just sit at home all the time. Go out more often and stand on tiptoe to practice your leg strength. If there is water on the floor at home, mop it up in time. Put a non-slip mat in the bathroom. It doesn’t take much time and effort. Taking care of both ends is much better than lying on the bed and suffering after a fall.