Testing simple physical abilities may help predict a person's risk of death a new study published in the British Medical Journal suggests.

The results of 33 studies reviewing basic physical characteristics such as walking speed, grip strength, balancing on one leg and time of rise from a chair has shown correlations with changing death rates with those people who are stronger, faster and more coordinated showing improved life-spans. In short, those who had poorer results on physical function tests had a consistently higher risk of death.

The review included 53,476 people who were reviewed for grip strength with the weakest being 1.67 times more likely to die prematurely than their stronger counterparts.

Similar findings were found with 14,692 people based on their walking speeds. Slower walkers had death rates 2.87 times higher than the fastest walkers.

Comparisons of 28,036 people found that the death rate was nearly twice as high for people who were slowest to rise from a chair than for those who were quickest to achieve this task.

The authors of the review concluded that assessments physical abilities may help identify people at increased risk of death who would benefit from targeted interventions such as strength training and cardiovascular exercise.

Reference: British Medical Journal, news release, Sept. 10, 2010