Elderly Risk Assessment of Falls with BSN

Due to the natural aging process, the risks associated with falling can increase significantly. For the elderly, this usually marks a rapid deterioration of their health. While there are identified strategies that can be adopted to reduce the number of falls, it is still not possible to prevent all falls. Clinically, the Tinetti Gait and Balance Assessment has been widely used to assess the risk of falls in elderly by examining balance and gait. This paper presents our initial results of using an ear-worn BSN sensor to detect aspects of the Tinetti Gait and Balance Assessment to predict the risk of falls compared to a healthy control cohort. For this study, data was collected from a control cohort of 12 healthy volunteers and a cohort of 16 elderly fallers of varying degrees of risk. The results derived have shown that it is possible to directly detect some aspects of the Tinetti Gait and Balance Assessment and the Timed Up and Go test, demonstrating the potential value of using the platform for continuous assessment in a home environment.