J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2023 Jun 3:glad141. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glad141. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization considers falls the second leading cause of death by accidental injury worldwide and one of the most frequent complications in older adults during activities of daily living. Several tasks related to fall risk have been individually assessed describing kinematic changes in older adults. The study proposal was identify which functional task differentiates faller and non-faller older adults using the movement deviation profile (MDP).
METHODS: This cross-sectional study recruited 68 older adults aged ≥ 60 years by convenience sampling. Older adults were divided into two groups: with and without a history of falls (34 older adults in each group). The MDP analyzed the three-dimensional angular kinematics data of tasks (i.e., gait, walking turn, stair ascent and descent, sit-to-stand, and stand-to-sit), and the Z-score of the mean MDP identified which task presented the greatest difference between fallers and non-fallers. A multivariate analysis (MANOVA) with Bonferroni post hoc verified the interaction between groups considering angular kinematic data and the cycle time of the task. Statistical significance was set at 5% (p < 0.05).
RESULTS: Z-score of the MDPmean showed an interaction between groups (λ= 0.67, F = 5.085, p < 0.0001). Fallers differed significantly from non-fallers in all tasks and the greatest difference was in stair descent (Z-Score = 0.89). The time to complete each task was not different between groups.
CONCLUSION: The MDP distinguished older adult fallers from non-fallers. The stair descent task should be highlighted since it presented the greatest difference between groups.
PMID:37279546 | DOI:10.1093/gerona/glad141
