Smartphone-based assessment of real-life mobility in older adults

Projekt-Details

Forschungsziel

Remaining mobile as we grow older is fundamental to active and healthy aging as it enables older adults to continue to lead dynamic and independent lives. Mobility restrictions constrict social engagement and increase adverse health outcomes and premature mortality.
Mobility is multi-dimensional and it is broadly defined as the ability to move oneself (e.g., by walking, by using assistive devices, or by using transportation) within community environments that expand from one’s home, to the neighborhood, and to regions beyond. The WHO’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health also recognizes a broad description of mobility, including not only the ability to maintain or change body position, carry, move and handle objects but also walk and move around outdoors either on foot from one’s home to the neighborhood or using transportation to reach regions further away.
Most studies assessing mobility in old age have either relied on retrospective self-reports which are susceptive to recall bias due to memory issues or have looked into single aspects of real-life mobility, e.g. only physical activity or only life-space mobility.
Smartphones now offer the posibility of collecting behavioral data unobtrusively during daily life. The smartphones’ raw accelerometer, gyroscopes and magnetometer signals were used to calculate physical activity parameters like active time, sedentary time, number of steps etc. and GPS data were used to calculate out-of-home mobility parameters such as life-space, action range, travelled distance, time out-of-home etc. Main aim of this project is to objectively measure real-life mobility in a comprehensive manner (including both physical activity as well as life-space aspects) in a sample of older adults without severe mobility impairments and examine its relationships with potential multi-domain factors.
StatusAbgeschlossen
Tatsächlicher Beginn/ -es Ende01.05.1331.03.20

Projektbeteiligte

  • Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln (Leitung)
  • Universität Zürich
  • Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,” University of Bologna

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