TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - When will my patient fall? Sensor-based in-home walking speed identifies future falls in older adults
JO  - Journals of gerontology. Series A: Biological sciences and medical sciences
A1  - Piau, Antoine
A1  - Mattek, Nora
A1  - Crissey, Rachel
A1  - Beattie, Zachary
A1  - Dodge, Hiroko
A1  - Kaye, Jeffrey
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Although there are known clinical measures that may be associated with risk of future falls in older adults, we are still unable to predict when the fall will happen. Our objective was to determine whether unobtrusive in-home assessment of walking speed can detect a future fall. <br><br>METHOD: In both ISAAC and ORCATECH Living Laboratory studies, a sensor-based monitoring system has been deployed in the homes of older adults. Longitudinal mixed effects regression models were used to explore trajectories of sensor-based walking speed metrics in those destined to fall vs. controls over time. Falls were captured during a 3 year period. <br><br>RESULTS: We observed no major differences between those destined to fall (n=55) and controls (n=70) at baseline in clinical functional tests. There was a longitudinal decline in median daily walking speed over the three months prior to a fall in those destined to fall as compared to controls, p<0.01(i.e. mean walking speed declined 0.1 cm.s-1 per week). We also found pre-fall differences in sensor-based walking speed metrics in individuals who experienced a fall: walking speed variability was lower the month and the week just prior to the fall compared to three months prior to the fall, both p<0.01. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: While basic clinical tests were not able to differentiate who will prospectively fall, we found that significant variations in walking speed metrics prior to a fall were measurable. These results provide evidence of a potential sensor-based risk biomarker of prospective falls in community living older adults.<br><br>© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1079-5006
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glz128
ID  - ref1
ER  -