Measuring Walking Stability with a Mobile Phone in Older Adults: A Validation Study

(1) Background: The local divergence exponent (LDE) is a sensitive measure of walking stability deterioration and risk of falling in older adults. We aim to determine the validity the LDE measured using a mobile phone and to assess its ability to discriminate between healthy young and older adults; (2) Methods: 20 older adults (76.4 ± 4.6 years) and 20 young adults (29.1 ± 6.5 yrs) walked for 6 min on a 20-m walkway while wearing a research-grade inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a mobile phone placed on the sternum to record 3D acceleration data. The LDE was calculated using data from both devices for 3D, vertical (VT), mediolateral (ML), anteroposterior (AP), and norm (N) accelerations. ICC (3,1) was used to determine the validity of the mobile phone's LDE. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to determine age-group discriminability of LDE measures; (3) Results: LDEs demonstrated excellent absolute agreement between the wearable IMU and mobile phone (ICC = 0.844). Mobile phone-derived LDEs demonstrated excellent validity relative to the wearable IMU (ICC > 0.75). No significant age-related differences in LDE were observed; wearable or mobile sensors (both p > 0.05); (4) Conclusions: LDEs measures obtained with a mobile phone are valid. No age group differences were identified.