gms | German Medical Science

Background: Due to the ageing society more and more people use walkers to prolong their mobility. However, 3% of them are hospitalized within one year, basically due to falls. Affected people, especially those with visual impairment, fear falling and physical consequences thereby incurred. In the project DigiRoll 4.0 a camera application meant to detect unevenness such as curbs will be applied with a group of walker users. In case of a detection users get an acoustic and optic warning.

Aim: It is the project’s main objective to evaluate changes in fear of falling and fall incidences.

Method: In a 1-year randomized-controlled-trial n=300 walker users will be randomly allocated to either the intervention or the control group. Data will be collected by self- and proxy ratings (0, six and twelve months). Primary outcomes are fear of falling (Dias et al. 2006) and fall incidence, secondary outcomes include quality of life (SF-12, Morfeld et al. 2011) and life space (Life Space Assessment, Baker et al. 2003). Linear mixed models are used to analyze the data.

Results: The expected results bring evidence to improve the quality of health care for people using walkers. Especially the effect on health-related outcomes, e.g. fear of falling or quality of life can be estimated more validly. From a societal perspective decreased falls will decrease health related costs caused by e.g. hospital admission.

Discussion: For the first time a camera-based system to improve safety for walker users will be evaluated. A benefit for daily practice is expectable.