Abstract
Falls in senior home residents are common. Individual preventive training can lower
the fall risk. To detect the need for training, a systematic assessment of the individual
fall risk is needed. The aim of this study was thus to assess whether a fall risk
score based on free field insole measurements can distinguish between an at-risk group
of senior home residents and a healthy young control group. A published fall risk
score was used in senior home residents over the age of 75 and a young (< 40 years)
control group to determine the individual fall risk. In addition, the fall events
over 12 months were assessed. Statistical analysis including ROC analysis was performed
to determine the ability of the score to detect participants at heightened fall risk.
In total, 18 nursing home residents and 9 young control participants were included.
Of the nursing home residents, 15 had at least one fall, with a total of 37 falls
recorded over 12 months. In the control group, no falls
were recorded. The fall risk score was significantly different between nursing home
residents and the control group (9.2 + 3.2 vs. 5.7 ± 2.2). Furthermore, the score
significantly differentiated fallers from non-fallers (10.3 ± 1.8 vs. 5.2 ± 2.5),
with a cut-off > 7.5 (AUC: 0.95) and a sensitivity of 86.7% (specificity 83.3%). The
fall risk score is able to detect the difference between senior nursing home residents
and young, healthy controls, as well as between fallers and non-fallers. Its main
proof of concept is demonstrated, as based on movement data outside special gait labs,
and it can simplify the risk of fall determination in geriatric nursing home residents
and can now be used in further, prospective studies.
Keywords
fall risk - free field gait analysis - geriatric trauma
