Читать книгу Pathy's Principles and Practice of Geriatric Medicine - Группа авторов - Страница 163

These functions should be carefully assessed, as they strongly influence the individual’s risk of falls and loss of independence. Various gait parameters can change in the older person due to multifactorial declines in different domains (e.g. sensory loss, motor impairment, cardiorespiratory insufficiency, cognitive deficit, and affective disturbances).⁵² Walking speed is frequently reduced, stride length tends to decrease, and difficulty emerges in navigating inclines and declines.⁴¹ The tandem ability is often reduced, and the need for prolonged double‐limb support time and a slight widening of the base of support is commonly observed.⁵³ Postural changes mostly consist of a slightly stooping of the trunk. Various functional performance tests (e.g. the Short Physical Performance Battery ⁵⁴), easy to use in daily practice in a hospital setting, can support the identification of gait and balance disorders and the implementation of interventions to reduce the risk of falling. Future research efforts based on wearable motion sensor technologies equipped with gyroscopes and accelerometers would help assess the risk of falling during activities of daily life in patients’ real home environment.⁵⁵