Can Technology Predict Falls in Older Adults?

The prospect of aging can conjure up a multitude of horrors — a mind stolen by dementia, a body debilitated by illness, a soul crushed by social isolation. For most, fear of falling would be well down the list.

But falls are, in fact, one of the more common and consequential risks faced by older adults. The statistics, compiled by the Centers for Disease Control, are both eye-opening and alarming.

One out of four Americans 65 or older falls at least once every year. Every 11 seconds, an older adult in the U.S. is treated in an emergency room for a fall; every 19 minutes, one dies from a fall. By 2020, the financial cost related to falls by older adults in the U.S. is expected to top $67 billion per year.

Figuring Out the Early Signs of Falls

So, it’s not surprising that an increasing amount of research is focusing on ways to predict if, and even when, a person is likely to fall. The goal is being able to take actions to reduce the risk. Much of that effort is built around using emerging technologies — from infrared depth sensors to brain imaging to virtual reality.

“Technology allows you to monitor people in their homes in a way you couldn’t have in the past,” said Marjorie Skubic, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Missouri and director of the school’s Center for Eldercare and Rehabilitation Technology.

She’s been refining the use of sensors and motion-capture technology to study older adults in their homes for more than a decade, and she’s enthused about its potential for helping people age in place. “We’ve found that once sensors have been in a place for three or four weeks, people completely forget about them. And that’s what we want — to capture their normal activity in their homes.”

Here’s how Skubic and other scientists are using technology to sharpen their ability to predict falls:

Gait Watching

While Skubic’s research has focused broadly on how sensors can help detect early signs of physical and cognitive decline, a recent study zeroed in on finding a more precise correlation between a person’s walking gait and his or her likelihood of falling.

Using sensor measurements of walking speeds and stride length of residents at TigerPlace, a retirement community in Columbia, Mo., researchers found a clear connection between a slowing pace and the risk of falling. In fact, analysis of the multi-terabyte-sized set of data, gathered over 10 years, showed that people whose gait slowed by 5 centimeters per second within a week had an 86 percent probability of falling during the next three weeks. That was four times more likely than someone whose walking speed hadn’t changed. Click here to continue reading.