Frailty assessment based on trunk accelerometry during walking

Abstract

The interest in ageing has been notably increased in the last decade because of the continue increment of life expectancy. Some of its consequences like imparity or frailty have become the center of attention of basic, clinic and poblational investigations due to the incidence level and gravity of the adverse outcomes derived from the age. It is estimated that the frailty syndrome affects to the 20% of the population older than 75 years. It is found that the functional decline derived from this syndrome brings to dependency, institutionalization, hospitalizing and death. Thus, one of the greatest actual challenges in this field is to found parameters that can discriminate between vulnerably and healthy subjects. Frailty causes an accelerated motor impairment. Gait analysis has been widely used to predict frailty. Characteristics like velocity or spatio-temporal parameters obtained with walking force platforms have been significantly considered in the literature. Recently, various studies have revealed that one inertial measurement unit provides relevant information about human movements with a minimum part of the cost and complexity of traditional force platforms. In this way, the aim of the present study is to investigate the applicability of trunk accelerometry for the assessment of spatio-temporal and frequential gait parameters allowing clinicians to perform measurements outside the laboratory environment that could improve the prediction of frailty.