Wearable Caregiver Posture Coaching Feedback System
The Wearable Caregiver Posture Coaching System was tested with both Saint Elizabeth personal support workers and family caregivers in real home environments, and was used to engage and empower caregivers of the seriously ill and frail elderly.
About the Project
Even personal support workers who receive training on body mechanics and client handling sustain back injuries at the highest rates of any industry. Thus, there is a need to provide caregivers with better tools to reduce the risk of injury. One such tool that we have prototyped is a wearable system that provides real-time feedback to warn caregivers when they bend or twist too far. This system is designed to provide feedback that is similar to the type of coaching an athlete would receive when training for a sport.
The goal of our Wearable Caregiver Posture Coaching Feedback System was to assist caregivers in performing their tasks safely to reduce the amount and severity of injuries sustained during care-related tasks. The tool, which is in the final prototyping stage, used two Shimmer accelerometer-based sensors (Dublin, Ireland) connected via Bluetooth to an Android phone, all of which were embedded into a wearable vest. Two sensors provided upper and lower back posture while the Android App collected and processed the position data to provide immediate spine-related posture feedback to the wearer, with this feedback being derived from evidence-based health and safety guidelines.
The purpose of the proof-of-concept study was to determine if the use of the Coaching System could improve caregiver body-mechanics, and if the change in behaviour was retained once feedback is turned off.
Project Team
Principal Investigator:
Tilak Dutta, PhD, PEng — Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network
Project Contact: Tilak Dutta — tilak.dutta@uhn.ca
HTIG 2014-11
Key Findings:
- The PostureCoach system was found to improve postures for caregivers while they performed care tasks.
- PostureCoach was most helpful for caregivers with little to no training in performing tasks safely.
Why was this study needed?
Caregiving tasks that involve awkward postures can pose risk of injury to individuals who lift heavy loads and those who have limited or no training in how to safely help persons transfer mobility limitations.
Suggestions on how these findings could impact frail older adults and/or their family caregivers and how this might be measured:
We developed a sample of PostureCoach, a Wearable Caregiver Posture Coaching System that tells an individual when they bend forward too far. This may be particularly helpful for caregivers because many tasks they do require forward bending and awkward postures. The PostureCoach could reduce the number and type of back injuries in caregivers.
Brief comment on type of study in lay terms:
Participants were asked to perform four trials of a series of simulated caregiving activities including practice and baseline trials without feedback, a coaching trial with feedback, and a retention trial without feedback. A reduction in spinal flexion angles was found for the ‘student’ (from 40.1 to 30.6 degrees) and ‘non-clinician’ (from 62.8 to 43.3 degrees) groups. PostureCoach appears to have a stronger effect on individuals with less caregiving experience which suggests that it may be an effective training tool for novice caregivers.
Key Findings:
- The PostureCoach system was found to improve postures for caregivers while they performed care tasks.
- A reduction in spinal flexion angles was found for the ‘student’ (from 40.1 to 30.6 degrees) and ‘non-clinician’ (from 62.8 to 43.3 degrees) groups.
- PostureCoach appears to have a stronger effect on individuals with less caregiving experience which suggests that it may be an effective training tool for novice caregivers.
Why was this study needed?
Caregiving tasks that involve awkward postures can pose risk of injury to individuals who lift heavy loads and those who have limited or no training in how to safely help persons transfer mobility limitations. We developed a prototype of PostureCoach, a Wearable Caregiver Posture Coaching System that provides immediate spine posture feedback to inform caregivers when they bend too far.
Brief comment on type of study in lay terms:
- Our goal was to develop a device that would help prevent back injuries in caregivers of older adults living with frailty.
- Participants were asked to perform four trials of a series of simulated caregiving activities including practice and baseline trials without feedback, a coaching trial with feedback, and a retention trial without feedback.
- A reduction in spinal flexion angles was found for the ‘student’ (from 40.1 to 30.6 degrees) and ‘non-clinician’ (from 62.8 to 43.3 degrees) groups.
- PostureCoach appears to have a stronger effect on individuals with less caregiving experience which suggests that it may be an effective training tool for novice caregivers.
Key Findings:
- The PostureCoach system was found to improve postures for caregivers while they performed care tasks.
- A reduction in spinal flexion angles was found for the ‘student’ (from 40.1 to 30.6 degrees) and ‘non-clinician’ (from 62.8 to 43.3 degrees) groups.
- PostureCoach appears to have a stronger effect on individuals with less caregiving experience which suggests that it may be an effective training tool for novice caregivers.
Why was this study needed?
Caregiving tasks that involve awkward postures can pose risk of injury to individuals who lift heavy loads and those who have limited or no training in how to safely help persons transfer mobility limitations.
People aged over 65 years represent most individuals having major surgery. Frailty has been consistently associated with morbidity and mortality after surgery. However, few studies evaluate the role of frailty in predicting patient-reported outcomes, such as disability, or compare the performance of different frailty instruments before surgery.
Brief overview of the methodology:
Our research team has developed a prototype of PostureCoach, a Wearable Caregiver Posture Coaching System that provides immediate spine posture feedback to inform caregivers when they bend too far. Participants were asked to perform four trials of a series of simulated caregiving activities including practice and baseline trials without feedback, a coaching trial with feedback, and a retention trial without feedback.
Remaining knowledge/research gaps:
- Future work includes testing the device in real homes and institutions.