{"id":5207,"date":"2025-10-01T10:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T09:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-medicine\/?p=5207"},"modified":"2025-10-29T14:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:49:10","slug":"older-adults-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-medicine\/2025\/10\/01\/older-adults-mindset\/","title":{"rendered":"What helps older adults bounce back after a fall? Their mindset might be key"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Falls in later life can be devastating\u2014but mindset matters. Dr Toby Ellmers<\/a> from the Department of Brain Sciences<\/a> explores how older adults\u2019 beliefs about ageing significantly influence recovery after a fall. His research reveals that a positive outlook may boost resilience, offering new hope for low-cost, high-impact interventions beyond physical treatment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Falls are a leading cause of injury and mortality for older adults, costing the NHS nearly \u00a35 million per day<\/a>. Falls frequently lead to injuries, hospitalisation, and disability. Yet not every older adult who falls goes on to experience physical decline.<\/p>\n

We sought to explore how psychological factors influence the recovery process, as these have thus far been ignored, with most studies instead focusing on how physical factors affects recovery. We specifically focused on \u2018mindsets around ageing\u2019\u2014an individual\u2019s belief, attitudes and assumptions about the ageing process. We chose to focus on such mindsets, as emerging research identifies these as an important predictor of broader physical function in later life. Yet, their role in post-fall recovery has not yet been studied.<\/p>\n

In collaboration with researchers at Coventry University, we studied ~700 adults in England, aged 60 to 90, who had not fallen in the recent past. We asked them about their beliefs around ageing\u2014things like whether getting older was stopping them from doing what they wanted. Over the next year, we then tracked whether or not they experienced a fall and, if so, we tracked how well (or poorly) they physically recovered afterwards. We specifically focused on walking speed, whether they needed help with daily tasks, whether they became more physically inactive.<\/p>\n

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What we found was really striking: people who, at the start, had more positive views of ageing were much more likely to recover well after a fall. Even accounting for things like their age, gender, physical health before the fall, depression, and even whether the fall caused injury, the mindset still mattered. Compared with people least positive about ageing, those with the most positive mindsets had:<\/p>\n