Patrick Boissy*, University of Sherbrooke/ Research Centre on Aging, Sherbrooke, Canada Cédric Gingras-hill, University of Sherbrooke/ Research Centre on Aging, Sherbrooke, Canada Simon Brière, University of Sherbrooke/ Research Centre on Aging, Sherbrooke, Canada Margaux Blamoutier, UQAM - Kinesiology dept., Montreal, Canada Cabana François, University of Sherbrooke/ Research Centre on Aging, Sherbrooke, Canada Duval Christian, UQAM - Kinesiology dept., Montreal, Canada Track: Research Presentation Topic: Public (e-)health, population health technologies, surveillance Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School Room: B-Bray Room Date: 2012-09-16 02:45 PM – 03:30 PM Last modified: 2012-09-12

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Background Mobility 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. Preserving mobility has now become a critical part of maintaining function and preventing further disability in older adults and adults with disease. Understanding the determinants of mobility limiations is essential in developing interventions aimed at preserving mobility in older adults. Intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental and organizational risk factors related to mobility limitations are now being considered through a social ecological perspective
Objective This paper describes an innovative ambulatory mobility and activity monitoring approach based on a wearable datalogging platform that combines inertial sensing with GPS tracking to assess the lifespace and mobility profile of individuals in their home and community environments.
Methods The components, sensors and functions of the platform are presented. Outcome variables (Time at home, Total active time, Time active at home, Time active outside the home, number of trips outside the home, number and weight of hotspots, distance in transit between hotspots with a vehicle, distance in transit between hotspots on foot, ellipse area of the distribution of weighted hotspot locations and maximal distance of travel from the home to the edge of the ellipse) that can be measured from long term recordings and the analytical and data reduction processes leading to the computation of these outcomes are explained.
Results Lifespace and mobility outcome data of two community dwelling older adults are illustrated (on going analyses for a cohort of 15 older adults are on-going) and discussed.
Conclusion The study of lifespace and mobility with the proposed approach can potentially provide unique insights into intrapersonal and environmental factors contributing to lifespace and mobility restriction associated with aging and disease. On-going studies are underway to establish the validity and reliability of the proposed approach.