Kinematic Characterization of Movements During the Tinetti Test

The improvement in life expectancy has led to a corresponding increase in people suffering from chronic illnesses as well as in subjects at high risk of falling. Various scales exist in literature to evaluate fall risk in ambulatory settings among which the Tinetti Test is the most used. However, only trained healthcare professionals can conduct this test. In order to make this scale available to a growing number of older people outside hospital and to reduce the high inter operator bias in scoring the exercises, a less provider dependent system is necessary. In this preliminary study, which can be used as a benchmark for future evaluation of individuals at risk of falling, some parameters were extracted from a wireless 3D magnetic inertial sensor applied on the chest of 30 young healthy participants. Each subject performed four exercises from the Tinetti balance test: arising from a chair (1), standing balance with open (2), and closed eyes (3) and sitting down (4). For exercises (1) and (4), the duration of movement and the maximum angular amplitude were calculated, while for exercises (2) and (3) the fractal dimension and the spectral power were evaluated. The obtained values, directly correlated with the exercises, showed a low variability among subjects, resulting as potential candidates for the characterization of the movement during the Tinetti test, enabling non-expert operators to assess the falling risk.