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Human monitoring systems for health, fitness and performance augmentation
Published in Adedeji B. Badiru, Cassie B. Barlow, Defense Innovation Handbook, 2018
Mark M. Derriso, Kimberly Bigelow, Christine Schubert Kabban, Ed Downs, Amanda Delaney
The complication of doing this is the multi-faceted nature of fall risk. A comprehensive review of the literature identified the top risk factors for falls as including: muscle weakness, history of falls, gait deficits, balance deficits, use of an assistive device, visual deficits, arthritis, impaired ability to complete Activities of Daily Living, depression, cognitive impairment, and being over the age of 80. These are risks that even relatively healthy older adults may possess and yet not be aware of their increased risk of falls. Therefore, regular screening is critical. Current screening, however, tends to be quite limited in its sensitivity. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) is one often used tool, where individuals complete a number of balance-related tasks and are scored by a trainer-observer on a 0–4 rating scale. The test, however, has a ceiling effect for higher performing individuals and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete, as well as significant space (15 ft) which precludes it from widespread use during regular clinical exams. The Timed Up and Go (TUG) is another commonly used assessment. Individuals stand from a chair, walk a distance, turn, walk back to the chair and sit down while being timed. A stopwatch is used to measure the total time duration. Normative databases have been established to allow the recorded time to be compared to the normative data to establish likely fall risk. This test too faces ceiling effects, as well as space constraints.
Postural control in Parkinson's disease
Published in Youlian Hong, Roger Bartlett, Routledge Handbook of Biomechanics and Human Movement Science, 2008
Qualitative evaluation of postural control is widely used in routine clinical diagnosis by observing patients standing upright, rising from a chair, performing a reaching task, or responding to a push- or pulltest. Some validated balance tests can easily be performed in clinical examination like the one-leg stance test, the Tandem Romberg stance and the functional reach test (see in detail Smithson et al. 1998 and Morris et al. 1998). Newstead et al. (2005) demonstrated an excellent reliability for the Berg balance scale and the Tinetti Balance Scale. These two clinical examinations consist of 13 or 14 tasks respectively (Berg et al. 1992, Tinetti 1986). But in most cases a so-called retropulsiontest is used to identify postural deficits in elderly people, especially in PD. This test consists of a sudden pull at the shoulder performed by an examiner standing behind the subject. The examiner evaluates the ability to recover balance based on a rating score1. Although reliability of the retropulsiontest seems good (Martinez-Martin et al. 1994, Visser et al. 2003) the value of this test is limited by the lack of normative data, the lack of analysing postural control in medial-lateral direction and difficulties in standardisation across different subjects (Bloem et al. 1998, Marchese et al. 2003). Furthermore, Jacobs et al. (2006) reported that the retropulsiontest is often normal in patients with balance problems. And it fails to predict falls in PD patients (Bloem et al. 2001a).
Age-Related Physiological Changes Influencing Work Ability
Published in Joanna Bugajska, Teresa Makowiec-Dąbrowska, Tomasz Kostka, Individual and Occupational Determinants, 2020
Test Berg Balance Scale (BBS) is also used to assess static and dynamic balance, the ability to transfer as well as the selection of appropriate assistance to facilitate walking (Berg et al. 1992). It consists of 14 simple activities measured using a five-point scale ranging from of 0 to 4. The maximum score that can be obtained by the patient is 56 points.
Effect of aquatic exercise on mental health, functional autonomy, and oxidative damages in diabetes elderly individuals
Published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2022
Luciano Acordi da Silva, Lorhan da Silva Menguer, Ramiro Doyenart, Daniel Boeira, Yuri Pinheiro Milhomens, Beatriz Dieke, Ana Maria Volpato, Anand Thirupathi, Paulo Cesar Silveira
To evaluate the risk of falls, we used the test ‘Timed Up and Go’ (TUG) in its classical version, developed by Podsiadlo and Richardson in (Podsiadlo and Richardson 1991). The test consists of raising of a standardized chair (seat height 43 cm; arm height 61 cm; seatback height 43 cm; depth 42 cm; width 40 cm), walking 3 meters in a straight line, turning around, returning to the place of departure, and sitting down again. To start the test, the test administrator gives the verbal command ‘go.’ The timer is triggered by the first movement of the old person’s trunk and stops when the same leans on the chair. The lower the score, the better the result. The Berg balance scale (BBS) assesses functional balance performance based on 14 items common to daily life (Berg et al. 1992). The maximum score that can be reached is 56, and each item possesses an ordinal scale of five alternatives ranging from 0 to 4 points. The test is simple, easy to administer, and safe for the evaluation of elderly patients. It only requires a watch and a ruler as equipment and takes approximately 15 min to perform. The higher the score, the better.
Development and evaluation of acu-magnetic therapeutic knee brace for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis relief in the elderly
Published in The Journal of The Textile Institute, 2021
Zidan Gong, Rong Liu, Winnie Yu, Thomas Kwok-Shing Wong, Yuanqi Guo
The balance ability as the secondary outcomes was assessed by applying Berg Balance Scale (BBS). The BBS is a widely used clinical test of static and dynamic balance ability of older adults (Blum & Korner-Bitensky, 2008). There are a total of 14 performance tasks in this measurement grading on 5-point scale (0–4), in which ‘0’ and ‘4’ indicate the lowest and the highest level of balance ability, respectively. The maximum score of the BBS is 56 (Berg et al., 1992; Langley et al., 2007). The score ranging from 41 to 56, 21–40 and below 20 indicate good, medium and high balance impairment, respectively, for assessment of function independence and balance ability. One ruler, two standard chairs, footstool or step, and stopwatch or wristwatch is the needed tools to conduct BBS test. The range of motion (ROM) of the knee flexion was another secondary outcome measured by a goniometer with 30-cm movable arms. The normal knee ROM of the elderly was approximate 140° (Bade et al., 2010). For the elderly with KOA, the ROM would be highly reduced due to joint swelling, pain and disability related problems (Steultjens et al., 2000). In this study, the ROM degree was recorded where the subjects indicate ‘stop’ owing to discomfort or achievement of pain threshold. The greater the ROM degree, the larger range of knee motion is. No obvious difference on the ROM values was found between with and without intervention of the developed KB, due to its thin, light, and fitting quality.
Walking asymmetry and its relation to patient-reported and performance-based outcome measures in individuals with unilateral lower limb loss
Published in International Biomechanics, 2022
Christopher K. Wong, Emily E. Vandervort, Kayla M. Moran, Carly M. Adler, Stanford T. Chihuri, Gregory A. Youdan
Physical assessment of balance and walking was performed without the use of walking aids and was augmented with instrumented wearable sensors. Balance ability was measured with the Berg Balance Scale, a 14-task clinical assessment of static and dynamic balance that has strong validity upon Rasch analysis and excellent reliability in people with limb loss (Wong et al. 2013; Wong 2014). Walking speed was determined with the 2-Minute Walk Test (2MWT), a standard and reliable measure for people with limb loss (Brooks et al. 2002). While each subject performed the 2MWT, six APDM Opal v2 sensors calculated spatiotemporal gait parameters. Two sensors each were placed on the subjects’ shoes, one sensor each was placed over the sternum and lumbar spine with separate harnesses, and two sensors placed on the posterior wrists. The sensors integrate accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data (Selles et al. 2005). Data were transmitted wirelessly to a laptop and processed using APDM Mobility Lab software with a proprietary algorithm, to provide precise spatiotemporal measurement of gait performance (https://www.apdm.com/mobility/) (Selles et al. 2005). Kinematic data included stride length, cadence, stance and swing time, and single and double support time defined as the time spent with one or two limbs on the ground. Data also included midswing foot elevation and deviation from the forward path; and toe-out angle in the transverse plane during midstance and toe-off angle in the sagittal plane during late stance. Daily step counts were obtained with a StepWatch4 Modus Health Step Activity Monitor (https://modushealth.com) strapped just above the lateral prosthetic ankle as an objective measure of physical activity, defined as the daily average of the first full week of 24-hour/day collection post-evaluation (Hordacre et al. 2014). A full week consisted of 7 continuous days to capture all weekend and weekday days. Each day included the midnight to midnight 24-hour data collection period with steps recorded for each day. To ensure completeness of data, steps were recorded every day during the study. Subjects were directed to wear the StepWatch4 during their usual activities without removing it from the prosthetic leg and return the following week for data download. Accelerometer data were downloaded and stored using the laptop base station and processed with StepWatch4 software, with each prosthetic step multiplied by 2 to represent total steps taken, as previously validated (Hordacre et al. 2014). General lower limb strength was assessed with the 30-second sit-to-stand test, which incorporates endurance, provides continuous data, and has good reliability and moderate criterion-related validity (Jones et al. 1999).