Detecting Fall Risk and Frailty in Elders with Inertial Motion Sensors: A Survey of Significant Gait Parameters

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering
• Rehabilitation Science

Background:

• Geriatric issues like falls and frailty pose societal challenges.
• Patients with frailty exhibit gait difficulties and increased fall risk.
• Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) offer accurate, portable, and cost-effective gait analysis for health monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the most significant IMU-based gait parameters for assessing frailty and fall risk in the elderly.
• To consolidate consensus on critical gait parameters and highlight controversial or irrelevant ones.
• To guide future research by pinpointing gaps in current understanding.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a literature review of recent studies on IMU-based gait analysis for frailty and fall risk.
• Analyzed 22 specific studies reporting statistical significance values, in addition to 10 prior reviews.
• Focused on studies using inertial sensors to measure gait parameters.

Main Results:

• For frailty diagnosis, significant parameters include double-support time, gait speed, stride time, step time, and daily steps/walking duration.
• For fall risk detection, trunk stability and movement parameters are most relevant.
• Identified key parameters but noted limitations in study scope and parameter coverage.

Conclusions:

• Specific gait parameters measured by IMUs can effectively discriminate between frailty states and assess fall risk.
• A need exists for comprehensive studies utilizing a wider range of gait parameters to refine frailty assessment.
• IMU technology holds promise for early detection and management of geriatric mobility issues.