Reliability, Validity, and Identification Ability of a Commercialized Waist-Attached Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Sensor-Based System in Fall Risk Assessment of Older People
Ke-Jing Li,
Nicky Lok-Yi Wong,
Man-Ching Law,
Freddy Man-Hin Lam,
Hoi-Ching Wong,
Tsz-On Chan,
Kit-Naam Wong,
Yong-Ping Zheng,
Qi-Yao Huang,
Arnold Yu-Lok Wong,
Timothy Chi-Yui Kwok,
Christina Zong-Hao Ma
Affiliations
Ke-Jing Li
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Nicky Lok-Yi Wong
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Man-Ching Law
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Freddy Man-Hin Lam
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Hoi-Ching Wong
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Tsz-On Chan
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Kit-Naam Wong
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Yong-Ping Zheng
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Qi-Yao Huang
School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Arnold Yu-Lok Wong
Research Institute for Smart Ageing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Timothy Chi-Yui Kwok
Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Christina Zong-Hao Ma
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Falls are a prevalent cause of injury among older people. While some wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor-based systems have been widely investigated for fall risk assessment, their reliability, validity, and identification ability in community-dwelling older people remain unclear. Therefore, this study evaluated the performance of a commercially available IMU sensor-based fall risk assessment system among 20 community-dwelling older recurrent fallers (with a history of ≥2 falls in the past 12 months) and 20 community-dwelling older non-fallers (no history of falls in the past 12 months), together with applying the clinical scale of the Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test (Mini-BESTest). The results show that the IMU sensor-based system exhibited a significant moderate to excellent test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.838, p p = 0.002), an acceptable convergent validity (Cronbach’s α = 0.712), and an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.590 for the IMU sensor-based receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The findings suggest that while the evaluated IMU sensor-based system exhibited good reliability and acceptable validity, it might not be able to fully identify the recurrent fallers and non-fallers in a community-dwelling older population. Further system optimization is still needed.
