Fall Risks Assessment for the Community Dwelling Obese Elderly Using Wearable Sensors

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lockhart TE ; Wu X
• Description:
  In the US, 35.7% of the adults, or over 72 million people are obese. Obesity is not only a contributing cause of many physical health conditions, but also associated with structural and functional limitations. One of the concerns is its association with an increased fall risks and subsequent injuries. Falls have been identified as the most common (36%) cause of injuries in the obese. Middle-aged and older obese adults fell almost twice as frequently (27%) as their lean counterparts (15%) per year. Although epidemiological studies clearly indicated increased risks of falls in the older obese population, it is not clear why they fall more. One way to evaluate their increased fall risks among the obese is to study the difference between obese fallers and non-fallers, if there is any. Clinical tools such as the Activities-specific and Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale, Timed Up and Go test (TUG), Sit to Stand test (STS) and 10 meter walking test have been demonstrated to predict elderly fallers. Older adults who score low on those scales or requiring longer time to complete the TUG/STS tasks have been identified to have higher fall risks. As such, we will evaluate the fall risks of the obese community-dwelling elderly using these clinical tools. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Aging Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Age Groups Falls Obesity Risk Assessment Sensors Wearable Technologies
• Publisher:
  American Society of Biomechanics
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  86
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20055473
• Citation:
  Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, September 4-7, 2013, Omaha, Nebraska. Newark, DE: American Society of Biomechanics, 2013 Sep; :86
• Email:
  xfwu@vt.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services ; Construction
• Performing Organization:
  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, September 4-7, 2013, Omaha, Nebraska
• End Date:
  20140831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5d66d7a5f1a120fc01b51d5ce6fe7b6dba6e370c2a81e10ea43a950bad5d5eef9814f20b31e8f3021a32d7c602c6013886b24d84cba7817c5ce73c1cd87d6a86
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213311/cdc_213311_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 97.49 KB ]