Amidst numerous cons of old age, one of the most dangerous and perhaps least known is the tendency of an aged individual to fall while just walking around and doing normal everyday tasks. These falls can be due to multiple reasons but the most common one is due to the lack of the ability of an individual to maintain proper posture and balance while walking. 

The CDC has realized the risk of these falls upon conducting a survey in 2018 and found that about 1 in 4 older adults reported fallings out of which about 8 million required moderate to severe medical attention,  and resulted in about 32,000 (more than 85 deaths a day) which rose to about 36,500 deaths in 2020 (more than 100 deaths a day). Not just that, in 2015 alone the medical costs for falls totalled to about $50 billion, out of which in North Carolina alone the total costs of older adult falls was around $ 1.23 billion and about 25% of state wide recorded old adult deaths were due to falls [link/hyperlink]  

CDC recommends methods under their STEADI (Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, & Injuries) initiative. These methods are aimed to screen and assess the chances of an individual falling, the three methods suggested are as follows:

1. 30-Second Chair Stand Test

This test is used to assess the individual’s leg strength and endurance. In this test, the individual needs to get up and sit back down from the chair in a controlled motion and the idea is to measure the number of times can perform this motion in a controlled way. You can then determine the score from this chart.

2. 4-Stage Balance Test

This test is used to assess the individual’s balance. The individual needs to stand by a chair and follow the movements as guided in the video below and take note of every time there is an imbalance in the motion 

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3. Timed Up and Go (TUG) Test

This test is used to assess the patient’s mobility. Considered to be a gold standard due to its simplicity and the minimal parameters, in this test you only need to measure the amount of time a person takes to move from one point to another point in a certain amount of time.

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Our Innovation

On going through the methods above you might have thought to yourself that these methods seem arbitrary, and might have been even more surprised that these methods are followed and suggested as the “holy grail” by a supposedly scientifically sophisticated organization like the CDC. 

Here at CareYaya, we think the same, and we are happy to share that our research team has embarked upon finding a better solution to this problem which can be easily implemented by getting rid of the previous arbitrary methods and utilizing the modern-day technology which now everyone has in their pockets. What if we told you that all this analysis can just be conducted by recording a simple video of your aged loved one walking and based upon well-researched and science-backed algorithms you could get a score indicating the chances of fall? Based on the score you can take the suggested steps and get rid of any worries.

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