Abstract
To develop daily monitoring systems that can identify elderly people with cognitive functioning and health literacy impairments, this study examined elderly participants during the sit-to-stand (STS) movement by using a Doppler radar to gather kinematic information for assessing any associations between those data and factors related to both cognitive functioning and health literacy. More specifically, we used Doppler radar systems to measure kinematic parameters related to the STS movement among 170 community-dwelling elderly participants aged 65 years and older, who were classified into good or bad health literacy groups and cognitive-healthy or cognitive- impairment groups based on the results of conventional paper-based tests designed to assess health literacy and cognitive functioning, respectively. The Doppler radar measured kinematic parameters for not only velocity, acceleration, and jerk (the time derivative of acceleration), but also higher-order derivative parameters: snap (the time derivative of jerk) and crackle (the time derivative of snap). Intergroup differences between the measured kinematic parameters were then compared using Welch's t-test. The results revealed that health literacy impairments were associated with velocity, acceleration, and jerk, while cognitive impairments were associated with the higher-order derivative parameters, snap and crackle. These findings show that the Doppler radar is an effective tool to distinguish impairments between health literacy and cognitive functioning based on the extraction of higher-order derivative parameters during the STS movement. The results should lead to the development of unconstrained monitoring systems that can detect early signs of impairments in both cognitive functioning and health literacy among the elderly.
Highlights
F ELDERLY patients, daily health status assessments are promising ways to detect and prevent diseases that are closely related to both healthy life expectancy and caregiver burdens
Various types of motion can be used to assess cognitive functioning and health literacy, this study focused on the STS movement, which was chosen because the measurement process does not require large observation areas or long-term monitoring
This study investigated STS kinematic parameters measured via a Doppler radar to test for associations between those data and impairments to both health literacy and cognitive functioning among elderly participants
Summary
F ELDERLY patients, daily health status assessments are promising ways to detect and prevent diseases that are closely related to both healthy life expectancy and caregiver burdens. Many studies have reported that low health literacy and cognitive impairment are factors that can predict mortality [1]–[3]. In this regard, health literacy is one Manuscript received January 14, 2021; accepted February 11, 2021. Date of publication February 18, 2021; date of current version March 17, 2021. The associate editor coordinating the review of this article and approving it for publication was Prof.
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