Physical Fitness and Orthopaedic Health: Clues That Your Intuition Is Right: Commentary on an article by Young Jae Cho, MD, et al.: "Evaluation of Physical Performance Level as a Fall Risk Factor in Women with a Distal Radial Fracture"

Fractures of the wrist and hip in elderly patients are so common and so costly that these fractures rank high on the list of national public health concerns in the United States. Prevention is perhaps the most effective way to attack this problem, and a prevention strategy relies in part upon identifying the risk factors that predispose elderly patients to these injuries. With this perspective, the article “Evaluation of Physical Performance Level as a Fall Risk Factor in Women with a Distal Radial Fracture,” by Dr. Young Jae Cho et al., is particularly relevant to contemporary orthopaedic care and public health. The authors attempted to identify aspects of physical performance and muscle strength as variables that might predispose women over the age of fifty years to distal radial fracture. Cho et al. compared forty postmenopausal women who broke their wrists with forty age-matched controls. Physical performance was measured by assessing walking speed, chair stand ability, standing balance, grip strength, and time spent walking during the day. The authors were also able to collate data about other health information, such as body mass index; the use of certain medications (including sedatives and antihypertensive drugs); and the presence of osteoarthritis, arrhythmias, vertigo, hypotension, and depression. Interestingly enough, the only variables that showed any …