Detail in how young people walk that predicts if they’ll suffer a deadly health problem in your 60s, experts reveal

Scientists can now predict how likely you are to suffer a potentially deadly fall in your 60s based on how you walk in your 20s. 

Falls are a major cause of injury and death among older people in the UK.

Official data suggests a third of over 65s suffer a fall in Britain each year and the accident is the most common cause of death from injury among this group. 

Falls are also the leading cause of A&E visits for older people in the nation, and treating them costs the NHS an estimated £2billion each year. 

But now scientists say they may have found a way to identify people at increased risk of life-threatening falls decades before they reach an advanced age.

In the study, experts from Stanford University in the US found they were able to accurately predict fall risk from three simple measurements.

These were how variable the width between steps was when walking, how different the timing of each step was, and how consistently they placed their feet on the ground.

Writing in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the authors said each of these measurements was 86 per cent accurate in predicting if someone would fall later in the experiment. 

In the study, the researchers had 10 healthy volunteers aged between 24 and 31 walk on a treadmill in front of 11 special cameras.

Using these, scientists were able to capture precise data on how exactly each person walked from every angle. 

In the second stage, each of volunteers was asked to walk on the treadmill again but this time while wearing heavy ankle bracelets, a vision impairing mask, and destabilising air jets.

This combination of gear was designed to mimic the loss of balance and reaction speed to falls that comes with older age.

Analysing the results, they found participants with the highest variance step width, step timing, and where they placed their feet in the first stage were more likely to fall in the second. 

The team highlighted how, in many countries, medics typically only assess how people walk and their potential fall risk after they start showing mobility issues. 

Jiaen Wu, lead author of the paper, said data like that gathered in their study could be used to help predict falls among older people before they are at risk. 

‘One big challenge is that small balance impairments can go unnoticed until someone actually falls,’ they said.

They added that stopping falls before they occur would potentially save many lives and healthcare systems billions in costs.

The new research follows a recent study that showed elderly people who have a positive attitude towards ageing were more likely to recover better if they have a fall.

About one in three people aged 65 years and over have a fall at least once each year, increasing to one in two people aged 80 years and over, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Official data show there were almost 220,000 falls-related A&E hospital admissions among people aged 65 years and over in England in the last financial year.

Falls can cause older people to suffer fractures to their hips, which in turn can lead to worsening mobility and a greater risk of future falls and further injury. 

Older people are more vulnerable to falls due to a general weakness and frailty that come with age which also makes it more challenging for them to recover.