Rising from the floor in older adults

OBJECTIVE: The primary goal was to determine the ability of older adults to rise from the floor. A secondary goal was to explore how rise ability might differ based on initial body positions and with or without the use of an assistive device. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of young, healthy older, and congregate housing older adults. SETTING: University-based laboratory and congregate housing facility. PARTICIPANTS: Young adult controls (12 men and 12 women, mean age 23 years), healthy older adults (12 men and 12 women, mean age 73 years), and congregate housing older adults (32 women and 6 men, mean age 80 years). The healthy older adult women (n = 12, mean age 75 years) and a subset of the congregate housing women (n = 27, mean age 81 years) were identified for further analyses. INTERVENTION: Videotaping and timing of rising from the floor from controlled initial body positions (supine, on side, prone, all fours, and sitting) and with or without the use of a furniture support. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Whether subjects were successful in rising, and if they were, the time taken to rise. Subjects also rated their perceived difficulty of the task as compared to the reference task, rising from a supine position. RESULTS: Older adults have more difficulty rising from the floor than younger adults. The healthy old took twice as long as the young to rise, whereas the congregate old took two to three times as long as the healthy old to rise. Although all young and healthy old rose from every position, a subset of the congregate housing residents was unable to rise from any position, 24% when attempting to rise without a support and 13% when attempting to rise with a support. Congregate old were most likely to be successful when rising from a side-lying position while using the furniture for support. The more able congregate old, as well as the young and healthy old, rose more quickly and admitted to the least difficulty when rising from the all fours position. CONCLUSIONS: The inability to rise from the floor is relatively common in congregate housing older adults. Based on the differences between groups in time to complete the rise, determining the differences in rise strategies, and the underlying biomechanical requirements of rising from differ ent positions with or without a support would appear to be useful. These data may serve as the foundation for future interventions to improve the ability to rise from the floor.