Frailty assessment based on trunk kinematic parameters during walking

Abstract

BackgroundPhysical frailty has become the center of attention of basic, clinical and demographic research due to its incidence level and gravity of adverse outcomes with age. Frailty syndrome is estimated to affect 20 % of the population older than 75 years. Thus, one of the greatest current challenges in this field is to identify parameters that can discriminate between vulnerable and robust subjects. Gait analysis has been widely used to predict frailty. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether a collection of parameters extracted from the trunk acceleration signals could provide additional accurate information about frailty syndrome.MethodsA total of 718 subjects from an elderly population (319 males, 399 females; age: 75.4 ± 6.1 years, mass: 71.8 ± 12.4 kg, height: 158 ± 6 cm) volunteered to participate in this study. The subjects completed a 3-m walk test at their own gait velocity. Kinematic data were acquired from a tri-axial inertial orientation tracker.FindingsThe spatio-temporal and frequency parameters measured in this study with an inertial sensor are related to gait disorders and showed significant differences among groups (frail, pre-frail and robust). A selection of those parameters improves frailty classification obtained to gait velocity, compared to classification model based on gait velocity solely.InterpretationGait parameters simultaneously used with gait velocity are able to provide useful information for a more accurate frailty classification. Moreover, this technique could improve the early detection of pre-frail status, allowing clinicians to perform measurements outside of a laboratory environment with the potential to prescribe a treatment for reversing their physical decline.

Dual Task Gait Performance in Frail Individuals with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment

“…The measured kinematic spatiotemporal parameters, which have been associated with gait disorders [30,31,32,33,34,35] in frail adults [36,37], were: step and stride regularity [30], gait symmetry [37], gait variability, the signal root mean square (RMS) value and the approximate entropy (ApEn) [38,39]. The frequency parameters analyzed were the harmonic ratio (HR) and the total harmonic distortion (THD) [37].…”

“…The frequency parameters analyzed were the harmonic ratio (HR) and the total harmonic distortion (THD) [37]. …”

“…We selected the vertical component because gait parameters obtained from vertical acceleration are more determinant than those obtained from anteroposterior and mediolateral directions [40]. …”

Do frailty and cognitive impairment affect dual-task cost during walking in the oldest old institutionalized patients?

“…These tests have been extensively used to assess gait ability (Freiberger et al 2012;Cadore et al 2013;CasasHerrero et al 2013;Martínez-Ramírez et al 2015). The starting and ending points were marked on the floor with tape lines and included a total distance of 7 m. The first and last meters, i.e., the warm-up and deceleration phases, respectively, were not included in the calculations for the gait assessments.…”

Application of smart bracelet to monitor frailty‐related gait parameters of older Chinese adults: A preliminary study

“…Specifically, stride time variability under fast gait conditions was most consistently associated with frailty . Martinez‐Ramirez et al found that gait speed, trunk acceleration RMS and harmonic distortion were significantly different between different frailty groups . Furthermore, spatial–temporal gait characteristics, such as stride time, stride length and double support, could distinguish different frailty statuses .…”