The Sun
DYING can be a scary thought, but experts say that your every day habits could reveal if you’re at a higher risk of an early death.
Doctors say that warning signs can actually start to emerge ten years before your demise.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, experts said that poor physical motor function that gets worse from the age of 65 is associated with an increased risk of death.
Researchers looked at seven different functions that might be able to detect if a person would die young.
This included daily functions such as cooking, using a toilet, shopping and getting dressed.
Other measures were how long it takes to get up from a chair, walking speed and grip strength.
The experts explained that early detection in changes to motor function could offer “opportunities for prevention and targeted interventions”.
It’s unclear what said interventions would be as each patient would differ as to what they would need.
“Despite the focus on death as an outcome in these analyses, our goal should always be to add life to years, not just years to life”, they added.
The experts looked at data from 6,000 people aged between 35-55 years in 1985-88, focusing on the impact of social, behavioural, and biological factors on long term health.
They then looked at the data in 2007 and 2016 and measured participants on a number of things, including daily living and other skills such as grip strength.
Deaths from all causes were then recorded up to October 2019.
In order to make the data fair, the experts took into account other potential factors of influence such as underlying health issues.
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