Investigation of fall-risk using a wearable device with accelerometers and rate gyroscopes

A clinical tool and an associated test that can assess fall- risk in elderly patients have been designed. The clinical tool was based on a wearable device with accelerometers and rate gyroscopes to identify trunk kinematic parameters. The test was based on a posturography protocol with different constraints and statistical analysis of the kinematic parameters. Statistical clustering based on the Mahalanobis distance was carried out using three groups of 30 subjects (1, age < 65 years; 2, age >= 65 years and 3, age >= 65 years and a fall history). The method was statistically validated using three groups of 100 subjects. The test allowed discrimination of elderly subjects with a high fall- risk with high specificity >= 0.930 and sensitivity >= 0.939.