title: Inertial sensing-based pre-impact detection of falls involving near-fall scenarios.
abstract: Although near-falls (or recoverable imbalances) are common episodes for many older adults, they have received a little attention and were not considered in the previous laboratory-based fall assessments. Hence, this paper addresses near-fall scenarios in addition to the typical falls and activities of daily living (ADLs). First, a novel vertical velocity-based pre-impact fall detection method using a wearable inertial sensor is proposed. Second, to investigate the effect of near-fall conditions on the detection performance and feasibility of the vertical velocity as a fall detection parameter, the detection performance of the proposed method (Method 1) is evaluated by comparing it to that of an acceleration-based method (Method 2) for the following two different discrimination cases: falls versus ADLs (i.e., excluding near-falls) and falls versus non-falls (i.e., including near-falls). Our experiment results show that both methods produce similar accuracies for the fall versus ADL detection case; however, Method 1 exhibits a much higher accuracy than Method 2 for the fall versus non-fall detection case. This result demonstrates the superiority of the vertical velocity over the peak acceleration as a fall detection parameter when the near-fall conditions are included in the non-fall category, in addition to its capability of detecting pre-impact falls.
authors.forename: Jung Keun
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Stephen N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Robinovitch
authors.forename: Edward J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry / Q000379:methods*; D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D056044:Actigraphy / Q000379:methods*; D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity