The use of wearable inertial measurement units to assess gait and balance outcomes related to fall risk among older adults

使用可穿戴惯性测量装置评估与老年人跌倒风险相关的步态和平衡结果

• 批准号: 1784418
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1784418
• 关键词: use; wearable; inertial; measurement; units

The aim of this exciting doctoral programme is to validate an emerging new technology whereby risk of falls could be assessed much more reliably by employing first principles of body stability and using wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) on human test subjects. The multidisciplinary supervisory team includes expertise in engineering (human motion and ground reaction forces) and physiotherapy.Falls affect a third of older people and have significant personal and financial costs to individuals and the NHS in the region of £2.3 billion per annum.Measurements from the IMU will be coupled with personalised anthropometric model of the the wearer's kinematics and kinetics while moving. The result of this will be a continuously calculated set of dynamic forces, including triaxial ground reaction forces acting on the human body (including tracking centre of pressure and centre of mass) which, when out of balance, cause loss of body stability and falling. Similar to 'flight envelope' describing conditions leading to loss of flight stability of an aircraft, 'fall envelope' will be developed describing conditions leading to loss of moving body stability. Tracking real body motion and balance of all forces acting on it will then be used to monitor continuously how close human body is to this envelope i.e. to falling throughout the day. This will then provide a novel risk assessment tool for falls, possibly implemented as a mobile phone app which can be used by a patient, carer or physiotherapist to, for example, evaluate the need for and effects of treatment, rehabilitation, etc.Risk of falling is currently based on clinical (rather than real life environment) assessments involving tests such as balance. These are, however, highly subjective, short-term and do not provide a continuous measure over a period of time during normal daily activities in a normal environment. Being better able to assess risk of falling for individuals may aid physiotherapists to individually tailor exercise programmes, taking into consideration individual impairments as well as how these are affected by realistic environmental factors.The EPSRC DTP-funded doctoral student will apply and extend IMU-based gait measurement technology to the case of instability of human participants using approved clinical test protocols, with the opportunity to work with older people and patients, engineers and physiotherapists.

这一激动人心的博士项目的目的是验证一项新兴的新技术，通过在人体测试对象上使用身体稳定性的基本原理和可穿戴的惯性测量单元(IMU)，可以更可靠地评估跌倒的风险。多学科监管团队包括工程(人体运动和地面反应力量)和物理治疗方面的专业知识。跌倒影响三分之一的老年人，每年给个人和NHS带来约23亿GB的巨大个人和经济成本。IMU的测量将与佩戴者移动时的运动学和动力学的个性化人体测量模型相结合。这样做的结果将是一组不断计算的动态力，包括作用在人体上的三轴地面反作用力(包括跟踪压力中心和质心)，当失去平衡时，会导致身体失去稳定性和坠落。与描述导致飞机失去飞行稳定性的条件的‘飞行包络’类似，将开发描述导致运动物体失去稳定性的条件的‘坠落包络’。然后，跟踪真实的身体运动和作用在其上的所有力的平衡将被用来连续监测人体离这个包络有多近，即一整天都在跌倒。这将为跌倒提供一种新的风险评估工具，可能会以手机应用程序的形式实现，患者、护理人员或理疗师可以使用该应用程序来评估治疗、康复等的需要和效果。目前，跌倒的风险基于涉及平衡等测试的临床(而不是现实生活环境)评估。然而，这些都是高度主观的、短期的，不能在正常环境下的正常日常活动期间提供一段时间内的连续衡量。更好地评估个人跌倒的风险可能会帮助物理治疗师单独定制运动计划，考虑到个人的损伤以及这些损害是如何受到现实环境因素的影响的。EPSRC DTP资助的博士生将使用经批准的临床测试方案将基于IMU的步态测量技术应用和扩展到参与者不稳定的情况，并有机会与老年人和患者、工程师和理疗师合作。