Context focused older adult mobility and gait assessment

This paper presents an initial overview of insights gained into how older adults mobilize in the home and community, based on data from inertial sensors which were worn by study participants over a 7-day period. The addition of a wearable camera provided additional contextual information which can be used to assess mobility and understand the factors that influence it in the free living environment. Seven days of data collected from a group of older adults who had experienced one or more falls in the previous six months was compared to that of a control group with no history of falling. Results showed that both groups spent relatively little time walking in challenging environmental conditions, and that the fallers spent significantly less time walking under regular conditions (no effect on gait) and outdoors. Analysis of gait metrics showed that the fallers were slightly slower in general, and more noticeable differences were observed when the participants were regrouped according to mobility levels determined from baseline assessments using traditional methods.