Public Health England has published a report on the wider impacts of COVID-19 on physical activity, deconditioning and falls in older adults. The study modelled the likely effect of the decrease in strength and balance activity observed during the pandemic on people who experience a fall, the number of falls and associated health and social care costs.
Key findings
Some of the key findings were:
- 32% of older people were inactive between March to May 2020. This has increased from 27% in the corresponding period in 2019;
- average duration of strength and balance activity decreased from 126 to 77 minutes per week, with the greatest change in the 70 to 74 age group;
- without mitigation, modelling predicts that 110,000 more older people (an increase of 3.9%) are projected to have at least one fall per year as a result of reduced strength and balance activity during the pandemic.
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Physiotherapist Katie Knapton from PhysioFit and Pete Moore from the PainToolkit have co-written a self-management guide for people suffering with Long Covid. This is free and entry-level information to try and help people on the path to recovery.
Waiting for care: Understanding the pandemic’s effects on people’s health and quality of life looks at how the suspension of routine NHS care has affected people’s health and wellbeing via two case studies – hip replacements and diabetes.
This month I have been working on a resource for social prescribing link workers which ARMA plans to publish in the autumn. It’s made me reflect on what a valuable role link workers can play in MSK health. We know that many people with MSK conditions need support with their mental health or have become lonely or isolated as result of their condition. Added to this they may have other conditions which are harder to manage as a result of their MSK health.… 
9 September 2021
September is Pain Awareness Month from 
The pandemic has led to a backlog of people, primarily over 50s, who are in need of support to manage their condition due to a combination of 
e-Learning for Healthcare has published a national training session providing an introduction to long COVID, looking at its definition, common symptoms, investigations as well as the impact it has on adults and children.