Using GPS Technologies to Examine Community Mobility in Older Adults

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Mobility Studies
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Objective community mobility assessment is crucial for understanding older adults' real-world activity.
• Global positioning system (GPS) technology offers precise, passive location tracking, reducing recall bias compared to self-report methods.
• This study aimed to quantify community mobility in older adults using GPS and correlate it with physical and cognitive performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply GPS-based methods for quantifying community mobility in older adults.
• To investigate the associations between GPS-derived mobility indicators and clinical measures of physical function and cognition.

Main Methods:

• 149 community-dwelling older adults (mean age 77.1 years) from the PRIMA study wore GPS devices for 7 days.
• Community mobility was assessed by activity space size and shape, duration (time out-of-home), and distance traveled.
• Spearman correlations were used to analyze relationships between GPS data and clinical assessments.

Main Results:

• Larger activity space, longer duration, and greater distance traveled correlated with better 6-Minute Walk Test performance (ρ=0.17-0.23, p<0.05).
• A more circular activity shape was linked to poorer performance on Trail Making Test Part A (ρ=0.18, p<0.05).
• Increased time out-of-home and larger activity space correlated with faster Trail Making Test Part B times (ρ=-0.18 to -0.24, p<0.05).

Conclusions:

• GPS-derived community mobility metrics effectively capture real-world activity patterns in older adults.
• These mobility indicators show significant correlations with executive function and walking endurance.
• Findings can inform future interventions aimed at promoting community mobility and healthy aging.