Assessing standing stability of older adults using pressure sensitive arrays

Older adults have an increased risk of falls due, in part, to cognitive and physical deterioration. The ability to accurately measure standing stability would be an asset to clinicians who could focus rehabilitation treatments for client specific needs. This paper demonstrates how a pressure sensitive array along with a processing algorithm allow the extraction of key clinical features to allow clinicians to quantify the patient's standing stability. Data were collected from an older adult with chronic stroke over a two week period and the extracted clinical features were compared to those of a healthy young person. The older adult exerted more pressure under the left foot due to stroke, a large area of sway and decreased movement velocity as compared to the young healthy individual. The data clearly distinguish between and correspond to decreased stability in the older compared to the younger adult.