Feature extraction and selection for objective gait analysis and fall risk assessment by accelerometry

Caby, Benoit [UCL] Kieffer, Suzanne [UCL] de Saint Hubert, Marie [UCL] Cremer, Gérald [MGD] Macq, Benoît [UCL]

Falls in the elderly is nowadays a major concern because of their consequences on elderly general health and moral states. Moreover, the aging of the population and the increasing life expectancy make the prediction of falls more and more important. The analysis presented in this article makes a first step in this direction providing a way to analyze gait and classify hospitalized elderly fallers and non-faller. This tool, based on an accelerometer network and signal processing, gives objective informations about the gait and does not need any special gait laboratory as optical analysis do. The tool is also simple to use by a non expert and can therefore be widely used on a large set of patients.