Assistive Technologies: Applications in preventing older adult falls

Abstract

Objective: To identify the support services offered by Assistive Techniques to assess the risk of falls in the elderly and to monitor their homes, as well as to present an overview of the main devices used, describing their particularities.

Material and Methods: Literature review based on Lilacs, Medline and SciELO. English-language articles, published between the years 2010-2019, with a focus on the population ≥60 years were included. The descriptors used were: gerontechnology, assistive technology, aging, falls, fall detection, assessment, risk of falls, wearable sensors, environmental sensors.

Results: 20 articles out of 448 met the inclusion criteria. It was found that two devices were mainly discussed in the literature: wearable sensors and home sensors. It was found that the devices are composed of algorithms capable of detecting and analyzing the fall at different stages.

Conclusion: Assistive Techniques can contribute to the prevention of falls in the elderly, examination of gait and balance, detection of movements by means of cameras in homes, identifying inactivity or body contour. Due to the reduction in the price of Smartphones, it is estimated that there will be a relative increase in the use of these devices, which feature digital compasses, GPS, microphone, camera, accelerometers and gyroscopes.