"Fall Risk Scoring" in Outpatient Gait Analysis: Validation of a New Fall Risk Assessment for Nursing Home Residents

Falls in senior home residents are common. Individual preventive training can lower the fall risk. To detect the need for training, a systematic assessment of the individual fall risk is needed. The aim of this study was thus to assess whether a fall risk score based on free field insole measurements can distinguish between an at-risk group of senior home residents and a healthy young control group. A published fall risk score was used in senior home residents over the age of 75 and a young (< 40 years) control group to determine the individual fall risk. In addition, the fall events over 12 months were assessed. Statistical analysis including ROC analysis was performed to determine the ability of the score to detect participants at heightened fall risk. In total, 18 nursing home residents and 9 young control participants were included. Of the nursing home residents, 15 had at least one fall, with a total of 37 falls recorded over 12 months. In the control group, no falls were recorded. The fall risk score was significantly different between nursing home residents and the control group (9.2 + 3.2 vs. 5.7 ± 2.2). Furthermore, the score significantly differentiated fallers from non-fallers (10.3 ± 1.8 vs. 5.2 ± 2.5), with a cut-off > 7.5 (AUC: 0.95) and a sensitivity of 86.7% (specificity 83.3%). The fall risk score is able to detect the difference between senior nursing home residents and young, healthy controls, as well as between fallers and non-fallers. Its main proof of concept is demonstrated, as based on movement data outside special gait labs, and it can simplify the risk of fall determination in geriatric nursing home residents and can now be used in further, prospective studies.