Identifying Possible Patient Slips and Falls Using Motion Capture Experiments

The Centers for Disease and Control report that falls are the most common cause of injury in older adults. Moderate to severe fall-related injuries significantly interfere with independent living and reduce quality of life, and it is necessary to prevent these falls whenever possible. The present study seeks to identify factors within a hospital bedroom and bathroom setting that may lead to falls. A motion capture experiment was conducted in a laboratory setting on thirty subjects over the age of seventy using one bedroom and two bathroom mockups designed to match the dimensions and layout of a representative room drawn from the archives of a large healthcare design firm. Data were post processed using Cortex and Visual3D software. A potential fall was defined as a period of time during which the jerk trajectory of the upper body’s center of mass remained consistently high. Preliminary results suggest that falls are more likely to occur when a patient is reaching, taking backwards steps, or turning. Future work includes locating each potential fall in a video recording to be analyzed by healthcare professionals including healthcare designers, clinicians, and a kinesiology expert. Identifying potential falls may lead to safer designs for hospital bedrooms and bathrooms and improved education for elderly adults about how to prevent falls.