Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Med Biol Eng Comput. 2014 Jan;52(1):9-15. doi: 10.1007/s11517-013-1116-8. Epub 2013 Sep 15.
Hip protectors are often prescribed to the elderly who are at risk of falling, with the goal of preventing hip fractures. However, determining the effectiveness of hip protectors has been hampered by unreliable compliance data. This study reports a reliable objective method of measuring compliance and the developed method could be used in any climate, regardless of temperature. Custom compliance monitors were built and embedded inside hip protectors. An algorithm was developed to utilize both temperature and acceleration to determine compliance. Seven young volunteers (age 24.6 ± 4.2 years old) wore the protectors for a total of 667 h while closely recording their compliance. One female (77 years old) who had hip fracture history wore the compliance monitors for 91.6 % of the time during a 1-week stay in a hospital. From the volunteers' trial, using temperature alone overpredicted compliance by 1.2 % and using acceleration alone overpredicted by 5.4 %, but using a combination of the two methods plus a correction factor only underestimated by 0.6 %. From the elderly data, the average compliance recorded from the temperature, acceleration, and combined methods with correction was 94.6, 88.9, and 90.2, respectively. The high accuracy of temperature sensors in this study will not be attainable in hot climates where most of the worldwide increase in hip fractures is occurring. The developed monitor with the algorithm provided high accuracy in determining compliance and was able to determine both the longitudinal and cross-sectional compliance at any time.
护髋器通常开给有跌倒风险的老年人，目的是预防髋部骨折。然而，由于依从性数据不可靠，护髋器的有效性一直难以确定。本研究报告了一种可靠的、客观的测量依从性的方法，该方法可以在任何气候下使用，无论温度如何。定制的依从性监测器被内置在护髋器内。开发了一种利用温度和加速度来确定依从性的算法。7 名年轻志愿者（年龄 24.6±4.2 岁）总共佩戴护髋器 667 小时，同时密切记录他们的依从性。一名有髋部骨折病史的女性（77 岁）在医院住院的一周内，佩戴依从性监测器的时间达到了 91.6%。从志愿者的试验中可以看出，仅使用温度会高估依从性 1.2%，仅使用加速度会高估 5.4%，但使用两种方法结合和校正因子仅低估 0.6%。从老年人的数据来看，从温度、加速度和结合方法中记录的平均依从率分别为 94.6%、88.9%和 90.2%，带有校正因子。在温度传感器在本研究中具有很高的准确性，但在全球髋部骨折发病率上升的大部分炎热气候中，这种准确性是无法实现的。带有算法的开发的监测器在确定依从性方面具有很高的准确性，并且能够在任何时候确定纵向和横向的依从性。
