The development and validation of a prototype mobility tracker for assessing the life space mobility and activity participation of older adults

Abstract

Background: There is increasing interest in examining the life space mobility and activity participation of older adults in the community using sensor technology. Objective data from these technologies may overcome the limitations of self-reported surveys especially in older adults with age-associated cognitive impairment. This paper describes the development and validation of a prototype hybrid mobility tracker for assessing life space mobility and out-of-home activities amongst 33 community-ambulant older adults in Singapore. Methods: A hybrid mobility tracker was developed by combining a passive Global Positioning System logger, triaxial accelerometer and radio-frequency identification. Objective measures of life space, derived from 1 week of tracking data using Geographic Information Systems, were the maximum Euclidean distance from home (Max Euclid) and the area of the minimum convex polygon surrounding all GPS waypoints (MCP area). Out-of-home activities were quantified by visually identifying the total number of activity nodes, or places where participants spent ≥5 min, from mobility tracks. Self-reported measure of life space in 4 weeks was obtained using the University of Alabama at Birmingham Study of Life Space Assessment (UAB-LSA) questionnaire. Self-reported out-ofhome activities were recorded daily in a travel diary for 1 week. Bivariate correlations were used to examine convergent validity between objective and subjective measures of life space and out-of-home activities. Results: The mean age of participants was 69.2 ± 7.1 years. The mean UAB-LSA total score was 79.1 ± 17.4. The median (range) Max Euclid was 2.44 km (0.26-7.50) per day, and the median (range) MCP area was 3.31 km 2 (0.03-34.23) per day. The UAB-LSA total score had good correlation with Max Euclid (r = 0.51, p = 0.002), and moderate correlation with MCP area (r = 0.46, p = 0.007). The median (range) total number of activity nodes measured by

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“…Second, innovative digital technologies should be envisioned to scale up best-buy interventions, such as digital platforms to deliver physical activity and rehabilitation programs (54). Mobile apps that can track life-space mobility over time, creating alerts for unusual reductions, are promising resources (55,56). Digital technologies are increasingly important strategies for engaging older people and for providing access to a wide range of services.…”

INtrinsic Capacity and its RElAtionship With Life-SpacE Mobility (INCREASE): a cross-sectional study of community-dwelling older adults in Singapore

“…However, the UAB-LSA instrument has been shown to correlate well with objective data from tracking devices. 55 In addition, the sensory domain was measured using self-reported questionnaire with binary yes/no questions without delineation of the severity of impairment. Objective measures of visual acuity and audiometry could have been adopted for more accurate assessments.…”

Facilitators and barriers to real-life mobility in community-dwelling older adults: a narrative review of accelerometry- and global positioning system-based studies

“…Assessment of community mobility by accelerometry and GPS provides objective methods to quantify mobility. Some of the advantages are overcoming recall bias, and providing a detailed understanding of individual spatio-temporal behavior and valuable insights into person-environmental interactions [74]. Valuable insights into environmental facilitators and inhibitors are also being defined.…”

“…Some studies assessed facilitators and barriers in detail but were not included here because they included individuals below our age thresholds [20,74]. While this review uncovered a number of studies investigating physical, cognitive, psychosocial, and environmental barriers and facilitators, there may be more domains that this review does not include.…”