Prospective fall-risk prediction models for older adults based on wearable sensors

J Howcroft, J Kofman… - IEEE transactions on …, 2017 - ieeexplore.ieee.org
IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 2017ieeexplore.ieee.org
Wearable sensors can provide quantitative, gait-based assessments that can translate to
point-of-care environments. This investigation generated elderly fall-risk predictive models
based on wearable-sensor-derived gait data and prospective fall occurrence, and identified
the optimal sensor type, location, and combination for single and dual-task walking. 75
individuals who reported six month prospective fall occurrence (75.2±6.6 years; 47 non-
fallers and 28 fallers) walked 7.62 m under single-task and dual-task conditions while …
Wearable sensors can provide quantitative, gait-based assessments that can translate to point-of-care environments. This investigation generated elderly fall-risk predictive models based on wearable-sensor-derived gait data and prospective fall occurrence, and identified the optimal sensor type, location, and combination for single and dual-task walking. 75 individuals who reported six month prospective fall occurrence (75.2 ± 6.6 years; 47 non-fallers and 28 fallers) walked 7.62 m under single-task and dual-task conditions while wearing pressure-sensing insoles and tri-axial accelerometers at the head, pelvis, and left and right shanks. Fall-risk classification models were assessed for all sensor combinations and three model types: neural network, naïve Bayesian, and support vector machine. The best performing model used a neural network, dual-task gait data, and input parameters from head, pelvis, and left shank accelerometers (accuracy = 57%, sensitivity = 43%, and specificity = 65%). The best single-sensor model used a neural network, dual-task gait data, and pelvis accelerometer parameters (accuracy = 54%, sensitivity = 35%, and specificity = 67%). Single-task and dual-task gait assessments provided similar fall-risk model performance. Fall-risk predictive models developed for point-of-care environments should use multi-sensor dual-task gait assessment with the pelvis location considered if assessment is limited to a single sensor.
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