Association between Daily-Life Gait Quality Characteristics and Physiological Fall Risk in Older People

Abstract

Gait quality characteristics obtained from accelerometry during daily life are predictive of falls in older people but it is unclear how they relate to fall risk. Our aim was to test whether these gait quality characteristics are associated with the severity of fall risk. We collected one week of trunk accelerometry data from 279 older people (aged 65–95 years; 69.5% female). We used linear regression to investigate the association between six daily-life gait quality characteristics and categorized physiological fall risk (QuickScreen). Logarithmic rate of divergence in the vertical (VT) and anteroposterior (AP) direction were significantly associated with the level of fall risk after correction for walking speed (both p p ≤ 0.01). We conclude that logarithmic rate of divergence in VT and AP are associated with fall risk, making them feasible to assess the physiological fall risk in older people.

Keywords

• wearable devices
• accelerometry
• activity monitoring
• aged
• mobility
• locomotion