TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2011//
TI  - Body-worn sensor based surrogates of minimum ground clearance in elderly fallers and controls
JO  - Conference proceedings - IEEE engineering in medicine and biology society
A1  - Greene, Barry R.
A1  - McGrath, Denise
A1  - Foran, Timothy G.
A1  - Doheny, Emer P.
A1  - Caulfield, Brian
SP  - 6499
EP  - 6502
VL  - 2011
IS  - 
N2  - Falls in the elderly are a major problem worldwide with enormous associated economic and societal costs. Minimum ground clearance (MGC) is an important gait variable when considering trip-related falls risk. This study aimed to investigate the clinical relevance of inertial sensor derived parameters, previously shown to be related to MGC. Previous research by the authors reported a surrogate method for assessing minimum ground clearance (MGC) using shank-mounted inertial sensors in young controls. The present study tests this method on a cohort of 114 community dwelling elderly adults, with and without a history of falls, completing a 30m continuous walk. Parameters based on the shank angular velocity signals that were shown to be associated with MGC showed significant differences (p<0.05) between fallers and non-fallers yet did not correlate strongly (r<0.7) with two standard measures of falls risk (TUG & BBS). Weak correlations were observed between the angular velocity derived parameters and gait velocity. We conclude that these parameters are clinically meaningful and therefore may constitute a new measure of falls risk.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1557-170X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091732
ID  - ref1
ER  -