Fall risk screening among the elderly with the use of a low cost system

• Grant number: 14/21858-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Preventive Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Paula Costa Castro
• Grantee: Caroline Lindinalva de Oliveira Silva
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

A high rate of elderly fallers accounts for morbidity and death, revealing a serious public health issue. For this reason, there is need for equipment and efforts directed to reduce these rates through prevention. However, devices that can predict and detect falls in real-time with accuracy are not widely available. These devices could provide monitoring and improve independence. Objective: this study aims to perform an exploratory study in order to investigate the capability of a device for detecting fall risk that has the potential to help preventing fall in the elderly. Method - Design: Exploratory-pilot sectional study. Selection: A convenience sample of 40 elderly volunteers. Location: evaluations will be conducted at Third Age Groups locations. Groups: fallers (10 recurrent fallers and 10 single fallers) and non-fallers. Device: A tri-axial acceleration sensor was attached to a small development board. Test: 40 elderly volunteers (20 non-fallers) will perform 3 times the Timed Up and Go Test, wearing the device attached to waist (center of mass). Each volunteer will be asking, in a single question, about the comfort of the device. Data Analysis: The device data will be process by a feature extractor (time-window acceleration differences), and use by an anomaly detection algorithm (multivariate Gaussian detector) to predict fall risk. At each of the 60 experiments, three of the 20 non-fallers volunteer, data will be used to train the algorithm, while the remaining will be used as test data. Expected results: We expect to obtain data from a low cost acceleration sensor device indicating differences between the patterns of fallers and non-fallers elderly, to detect risk of falls in the elderly. In addition, this pilot study can initiate a real database of gait patterns and risk of falling about senescent individuals to assist the research group and the area in future studies. The findings from the study will be disseminated through papers in the literature and presentation at conferences in the area. The dissemination of these results could help researchers and professionals in Brazil and in the world, contributing to the programs development, research and policy to prevent falls.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PONTI, MOACIR; BET, PATRICIA; OLIVEIRA, CAROLINE L.; CASTRO, PAULA C.. Better than counting seconds: Identifying fallers among healthy elderly using fusion of accelerometer features and dual-task Timed Up and Go. PLoS One, v. 12, n. 4, APR 27 2017. (13/07375-0, 15/09715-8, 15/13504-2, 16/10982-3, 14/21858-6)