Fall Risk is Mostly in Your Head
16 Julio 2024 - 6:55AM
Dr. Henry Mahncke, CEO of Posit Science, which makes the brain
exercise app BrainHQ, addressed thought leaders in the Medicare
Advantage industry at the Third Annual Medicare Advantage
Leadership Innovations East Conference about reducing falls among
older adults.
The annual risk of falls among seniors is high and increases
with age: 33% of those 65+; 45% of those 75+; and 53% of those 80+.
And falls are expensive – with annual costs in excess of $50
billion to the health care system.
“Most people think of fall risk as an issue caused by the body
and the environment,” Dr. Mahncke said, “but the brain has the
central role in keeping us on our feet. And that means that brain
health – and proven brain exercises – can play an important role in
fall prevention programs.”
Dr. Mahncke reviewed the neuroscience of falls, noting that
people often make missteps, which they quickly correct in daily
life. They do so when the brain processes information from sensors
in the body, the inner ear, and the eye to make split-second
adjustments to movement and gait – so quickly they may not even
notice the misstep and its correction.
“Starting in our late twenties, most people begin to experience
a slowing in brain processing,” Mahncke noted. “Initially, these
changes are not even noticeable – measurable in thousandths of a
second – but with passing years, the slowing accumulates, and the
brain often fails in making split-second adjustments.”
Those failures in brain processing are an important cause of
falls. Repeated falls indicate the further deterioration of the
brain’s systems controlling balance and gait.
In recent decades, neuroscientists have developed computerized
brain exercises shown to increase processing speed in older adults
– with relatively small amounts of time spent training (typically,
a total of 10 hours spread out over many weeks). In recent years,
in multiple randomized controlled studies, those increases in brain
speed have been shown to reduce both fall risk and fall
incidence.
Dr. Mahncke reviewed three recent studies funded by the National
Institute on Aging.
The first study – conducted at Chicago-area retirement
communities among those at the cusp of high fall risk – showed the
brain exercise group had significantly better fall risk after
training than the control group, who progressed to high fall
risk.
The second study of people at the cusp of high fall risk –
conducted on Chicago’s South Side – showed the brain exercise group
significantly reduced fall risk and improved in gait speed and
distracted gait, while the control group progressed to high
risk.
And, the third study, followed the fall incidence of 2,832 older
adults over a 10-year period, and found that those in the brain
exercise group with a prior history of falls had a 31% lower chance
of subsequent falls, as compared to those with prior falls in the
control group.
Dr. Mahncke concluded by presenting a Chronic Care Improvement
Program focused on falls that could save Medicare Advantage plans
tens of millions of dollars for every 1,000 patients enrolled.
Benefits of BrainHQ have been shown in hundreds of studies,
including significant gains in measures of cognition (attention,
processing speed, memory, decision-making), in measures of quality
of life (depressive symptoms, confidence, safety, health-related
quality of life), and in real-world measures (health outcomes,
balance, driving, hearing, work). BrainHQ is offered, without
charge, as a benefit by leading national and 5-star Medicare
Advantage plans and by leading medical centers, clinics, and
communities. Consumers can try a BrainHQ exercise for free daily
at http://www.brainhq.com.
Contact: media@brainhq.com