Non-obtrusive Gait & Fall Monitoring

描述（由申请人提供）：老年人跌倒是一个主要的健康问题，是需要医疗干预的最常见原因之一，也是40%的养老院入院原因之一。几项研究已经确定了可量化的步态标记，似乎可以区分老年“跌倒者”和非跌倒者。这些研究依赖于在步态实验室获得的数据。将步态评估能力和跌倒检测扩展到家庭中可以提供有价值的步态弱点演变的事前信息，这些信息反过来可用于评估对策的效率。目前的移动步态分析技术是不够的，因为它们依赖于顺应性或太侵入。提出了一种新的步态评估和跌倒监测系统。该设备是被动的，通过感应地板振动和微创无线设备获取步态数据，从而排除了在特殊表面行走或被摄像头观察的需要。本研究的主要目的是通过与弗吉尼亚大学健康系统物理医学和康复步态实验室接受的步态评估技术进行比较，验证该设备的性能

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Falls among the elderly, one of the most common reasons requiring medical intervention and a contributing factor in 40% of nursing home admissions, are a major health problem. Several studies have identified quantifiable gait markers that appear to distinguish between elderly "fallers" and non-fallers. These studies have relied on data acquired in gait-laboratories. Extending gait assessment capability, and falls detection, into the home could provide valuable before-the-fact information on gait weakness evolution, which in turn could be used to assess the efficiency of counter measures. Current mobile gait analysis techniques are insufficient because they rely on compliance or are too intrusive. The development of a new gait assessment and falls monitor is proposed. The device is passive and obtains gait data from sensing floor vibrations as well as a minimally invasive wireless device, precluding the need to walk on special surfaces or be observed by cameras. This study's principal aim is to validate the device's performance through a comparison with accepted gait assessment techniques at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Gait lab at the University of Virginia Health System PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: An estimated 20% - 40% of community-dwelling elderly fall at least once a year 2 and this rate increases for nursing home residents. Fall-related injuries are among the most common reasons requiring medical intervention and are a contributing factor in 40% of nursing home admissions. The cost of falls to the national economy is significant. In 1994 the total cost due to falls was estimated to be $20.2 billion. This number is expected to climb to $32.2 billion by 2020. One suggestion for reducing the number of falls has been the creation of a fall risk assessment for institutional residents, an important component of which is gait assessment. In view of the results obtained during the Phase I effort, it appears that the floor sensor system may be able to answer a well defined need for which there is presently no other solution that promises to be as readily implementable and for which the market potential is significant.