TY - JOUR PY - 2016// TI - Kinect-based choice reaching and stepping reaction time tests for clinical and in-home assessment of fall risk in older people: a prospective study JO - European review of aging and physical activity A1 - Ejupi, Andreas A1 - Gschwind, Yves J. A1 - Brodie, Matthew A. D. A1 - Zagler, Wolfgang L. A1 - Lord, Stephen R. A1 - Delbaere, Kim SP - 2 EP - 2 VL - 13 IS - N2 - BACKGROUND: Quick protective reactions such as reaching or stepping are important to avoid a fall or minimize injuries. We developed Kinect-based choice reaching and stepping reaction time tests (Kinect-based CRTs) and evaluated their ability to differentiate between older fallers and non-fallers and the feasibility of administering them at home.

METHODS: A total of 94 community-dwelling older people were assessed on the Kinect-based CRTs in the laboratory and were followed-up for falls for 6 months. Additionally, a subgroup (n = 20) conducted the Kinect-based CRTs at home. Signal processing algorithms were developed to extract features for reaction, movement and the total time from the Kinect skeleton data.

RESULTS: Nineteen participants (20.2 %) reported a fall in the 6 months following the assessment. The reaction time (fallers: 797 ± 136 ms, non-fallers: 714 ± 89 ms), movement time (fallers: 392 ± 50 ms, non-fallers: 358 ± 51 ms) and total time (fallers: 1189 ± 170 ms, non-fallers: 1072 ± 109 ms) of the reaching reaction time test differentiated well between the fallers and non-fallers. The stepping reaction time test did not significantly discriminate between the two groups in the prospective study. The correlations between the laboratory and in-home assessments were 0.689 for the reaching reaction time and 0.860 for stepping reaction time.

CONCLUSION: The study findings indicate that the Kinect-based CRT tests are feasible to administer in clinical and in-home settings, and thus represents an important step towards the development of sensor-based fall risk self-assessments. With further validation, the assessments may prove useful as a fall risk screen and home-based assessment measures for monitoring changes over time and effects of fall prevention interventions.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1813-7253 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s11556-016-0162-2 ID - ref1 ER -