Gerontology

Emergency medicine

Engineering

Older people

Psychoanalysis

Aerospace engineering

Injury prevention

Displacement (psychology)

Aerodynamics

Balance (ability)

Center (category theory)

Medical emergency

Environmental health

Balance problems

Physics

Poison control

Psychology

Fall prevention

Physical therapy

Population

Meta-analysis

Internal medicine

Center of pressure (fluid mechanics)

Crystallography

Medicine

Chemistry

Physical medicine and rehabilitation

Mechanics

Falling (accident)

Ageing Research Reviews

Falling is the second most prevalent cause of accidental death in the world. Currently available clinical tests to assess balance in older people are insufficiently sensitive to screen for fall risk in this population. Laboratory tests that record the center of pressure (COP) trajectory could overcome this problem but despite their widespread use, the choice of COP trajectory features for use as a biomarker of fall risk lacks consensus. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at identifying the best COP characteristics to predict risk of falling in older adults. More than 4000 articles were screened; 44 (7176 older adults) were included in this study. Several COP parameters emerged as good indices to discriminate fallers from non-fallers. From sensitivity analysis, Sway area per unit time, anteroposterior mean velocity, and radial mean velocity were the best traditional features. In this study, identification of older people with a high fall risk was demonstrated using quiet-standing recordings. Such screening would also be useful for routine follow-up of balance changes in older fallers in clinical practice.

Center of pressure displacement characteristics differentiate fall risk in older people: A systematic review with meta-analysis