Validation of the ambient TUG chair with light barriers and force sensors in a clinical trial

ABSTRACT

To initiate appropriate interventions and avoid physical decline, comprehensive measurements are needed to detect functional changes in elderly people at the earliest possible stage. The established Timed Up&Go (TUG) test takes little time and, due to its standardized and easy procedure, can be conducted by elderly people in their own homes without clinical guidance. Therefore, cheap light barriers (LBs) and force sensors (FSs) are well suited ambient sensors that could easily be attached to existing (arm)chairs to measure and report TUG times in order to identify functional decline. We validated the sensitivity of these sensors in a clinical trial with 100 elderlies aged 58–92 years with a mean of 74 (±6.78) years by comparing the sensor-based results with standard TUG measurements using a stopwatch. We further evaluated the accuracy enhancement when calibrating the algorithm via a mixed linear model. With calibration, the LBs achieved a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.83 s, compared to 1.90 s without, and the FSs achieved 0.90 s compared to 2.12 s without. The suitability of measuring accurate TUG times with each of the ambient sensors and of measuring TUG regularly in the homes of elderly people could be confirmed.

KEYWORDS:

• assessment
• falls
• older adults
• mobility

Acknowledgments

We thank Lindy Musial-Bright for the critical reading of the manuscript and Fabian Sobotka for suggestions on the statistical evaluation. We certify that the study sponsors had no involvement in the study design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung [01FCO8044].