Abstract
Falls in the elderly are a common health issue that can involve severe injuries like hip fractures, requiring considerable medical attention, and subsequent care. Following surgery, physiotherapy is essential for strengthening muscles, mobilizing joints and fostering the return to physical activities. Ideally, physiotherapy programmes would benefit from active home-based monitoring of the elderly patients’ daily activities and exercises. This paper aims at providing a preliminary analysis addressing three key research questions. First, what are the key involved activities (at-hospital, home exercises, and activities of daily living) during the post-operative hip fracture rehabilitation process? Second, how can one monitor and identify a range of leg exercises accurately? Last, what is the most suitable sensor location that can categorize the majority of the physical activities thought to be important during the rehabilitation programme? During preliminary testing, it was noted that a standard deviation of the acceleration signal was suitable for classification of static activities like sitting, whereas classification of the ambulatory activities like walking, both the frequency content and related amplitude of the acceleration signal, plays a significant role. The research findings suggest that the ankle is an appropriate location for monitoring most of the leg movement physical activities.
Highlights
Hip fracture is a common event among the elderly population
This often leads to loss of independence with high morbidity and mortality rates [1]. It is a common health issue arising from osteoporosis
The post-operative hip fracture healing progressive stages involve a number of stages
Summary
Hip fracture is a common event among the elderly population. This often leads to loss of independence with high morbidity and mortality rates [1]. The post-operative hip fracture healing progressive stages involve a number of stages These stages cover the rehabilitation requirements at hospital, indoor at-home activities, and outdoor activities. The post-operative effects of physiotherapeutic exercises and mobility training during the hip fracture rehabilitation process for elderly patients have been discussed by a number of scholars [12,13,14,15]. The development of a new active monitoring system that can monitor the different key activities like sitting, standing, climbing stairs, walking, exercycle, leg movement, and swinging the leg to the side as described above is valuable for monitoring physical activity during independent living [16].
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