Development of a novel body-worn falls monitor
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A novel body-worn falls monitor system: development and evaluation in the frail elderly population
IRAS ID
225139
Contact name
Malcolm Granat
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Salford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Falls are one of the serious and common health related problems amongst the older adult population. Over 40,000 falls have been recorded in the past year in Four Seasons Health Care homes alone. 'Long lies' or inability to get up following a fall has a greater adverse risk to an individual causing pressure sores, carpet burns, dehydration, hypothermia, and even death. Therefore, detection of falls leading to immediate help would greatly minimise the adversities following a fall. Currently available falls detection systems suffer from high rate of false alarms. We aim to minimise the falls alarms by robustly detecting an unexpected change in body postures using wearable sensors.
Activity data will be recorded continuously for a two-month period. The activity monitor (activPAL, weighing 20g) will be attached to the front of the thigh using medical-grade waterproof dressing. It will remain in place on the leg for a seven-day period, as is the current practice with these devices. The monitor will then be removed, data downloaded, and it will then be relocated on the other leg for another seven days. This will then be repeated until an 8 week data record is obtained. Falls will be manually recorded by nursing-home staff. Using this record, and the activity data, our previously developed detection algorithm will be evaluated.We will collect data from 100 older adults in phase I and 150 in phase II of the study. To understand user and staff perceptions of the developed system, a purposive sample of 10 older adults and 20 care staffs will be recruited for the face-to-face interviews. The interviews will be recorded, transcribed and analysed using NVivo. The major impact of this development will be the provision of an important tool to significantly aid supported independent living in the elderly population.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
17/IEC08/0019
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jun 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion