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Instrumented assessment of test battery for physical capability using an accelerometer: a feasibility study
1Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Clinical Ageing Research Unit, Newcastle University, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Physiological Measurement
|April 24, 2015
Summary
Body-worn monitors (BWMs) offer a sensitive method for assessing physical capability in healthy ageing. This pilot study shows BWMs can reliably measure physical function, enhancing assessment accuracy and paving the way for improved health monitoring.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Biomedical Engineering
- Physical Therapy
Background:
- Healthy ageing phenotype (HAP) assessment relies on physical capability subdomains like postural control, locomotion, and endurance.
- Current assessment methods are often inconsistent, lack sensitivity, and are prone to errors.
- Instrumentation with body-worn monitors (BWMs) presents a promising solution to enhance measurement accuracy and consistency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and evaluate a single tri-axial accelerometer-based body-worn monitor (BWM) for instrumented physical capability assessment.
- To present novel BWM-based outcomes for HAP assessment, including magnitude, frequency, and spatio-temporal characteristics.
- To compare BWM outcomes with manually recorded values for key physical function tests.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a single tri-axial accelerometer-based device (BWM) for data collection during physical capability tests.
- Developed algorithms to derive 14 BWM-based outcomes across postural control, locomotion, endurance, sit-to-stand-to-sit, and TUG subdomains.
- Compared BWM-derived outcomes with manually recorded data where feasible.
Main Results:
- No significant differences were found between BWM and manual measures for locomotion and Timed Up and Go (TUG) tasks (p ≥ 0.319).
- Significant differences were observed for total distance in endurance tests (p = 0.037) and sit-to-stand-to-sit transition times (p < 0.000).
- Identified reasons for discrepancies and quantified additional sensitive outcomes for postural control and gait.
Conclusions:
- Demonstrated the feasibility of using BWMs to enhance the measurement of physical capacity for HAP assessment.
- The proposed methodology is applicable to various accelerometer-based monitors and diverse study types, including intervention and pathological assessments.
- BWMs offer a sensitive and reliable method to improve the objectivity and consistency of physical function evaluations in ageing research.
