Accelerometer and footswitch evaluation of movement in three elderly patient groups

We examined anterior-posterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) head and trunk movements during gait using accelerometers, and a footswitch evaluation of temporal parameters of gait during walking of two distinct elderly faller groups. Elderly fallers with a primary diagnosis of orthostatic hypotension, elderly fallers without a diagnosis of Orthostatic Hypotension and a control group of healthy elderly non-fallers were examined to determine if both sets of measures can be used to differentiate between the three groups. Using different parameters of AP and ML trunk movement and certain temporal parameters of gait we were able to significantly differentiate between the three groups to the same extent using both sets of measures. These results are exploratory and need to be confirmed in a definitive more high powered study.