Prospective Study and Analysis of Biomechanical Parameters of Human Movement Based on Disability Indicators in Older Adults

Mobility loss in older people is caused by a variety of aging impairments in various body systems.The disability, which includes physical impairments and resulting activity limitations or participation restrictions, can arise acutely from a catastrophic illness or, more commonly, from subacute functional decline without a clear triggering event. Lower physical functioning was associated with higher healthcare utilization and expenditures, leading to a large burden on government-funded healthcare services. Early identification of mobility changes and intervening in them would likely be the most effective strategy to reduce the burden of disability in the population. Overall, there is a need to develop strategies to reduce disability among older adults in which kinetic and kinematic characteristics are used to predict disability status.Accordingly, the purpose of this prospective cohort is to identify biomechanical parameters, from the gait, sit-to-stand, timed up and go, stair ascend and descend, and quiet standing functional tasks, as predictors of changes in health and disability status in older adults.This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), NORTE 2020, and European Social Fund of European Union, grant number 2020.05356.BD and through R&D Units funding (UIDB/05210/2020), Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal and the European Union.

Inclusion Criteria:older adults, 60 years or over;community-dwelling;able to perform the tasks (gait, sit-to-stand, climb and descend stairs) independently;Exclusion Criteria:older adults who are institutionalized;older adults who have established diagnosis of malignancy or terminal diseases with an anticipated survival of less than 1 year;older adults who have stroke history, cerebral hemorrhage, head trauma, or Parkinson's disease;older adults who have cognitive impairment, specifically Mini Mental StateExamination (Portuguese version) score of 22 for 0 to 2 years of literacy, 24 for 3 to6 years of literacy and 27 for more than 6 years of literacy (Morgado et al., 2009);older adults who have rheumatic pathologies that interfere with the tasks performance;older adults who have diabetic foot, lower limb fracture less than 6 weeks, or other related conditions;older adults who have unstable cardiovascular disease, liver or renal function failure;older adults who have a body mass index greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2;older adults who vestibular and/or audition or vision impairments non corrected that influence the performance of tasks;older adults who presence of symptoms at the time of evaluation that influences the participant performance of tasks.