Could In-Home Sensors Surpass Human Observation of People with Parkinson’s at High Risk of Falling? An Ethnographic Study

Table 2

Summary of key observations from all participants’ video records, frequency observed by activity.

	Walking	Standing	Sitting to standing	Standing to sitting
Fall prevention
Used arms			×58	×33
Held/cruised furniture	×25	×21	×2
Held banisters/rails	×25
Held kitchen counter	×3	×14	×1
Held wall with free hand(s)	×13	×4
Used stick	1 × throughout	×2 (leaned on)	×6
Pause/adjust midway	×14 (turns, in space, steps)		×13	×8
Aborted attempt		×1 (to reach)	×6
Observed instability
“Sway” or “wobble” (e.g.)	×51 (turns, steps)	×21 (pointing, reaching)	×20 (walked straight away)
No control/heavy (no hands)				×23/×12
Stepped/swayed backward		×6 (step(s) back)	×11 (toes off floor)
Fell backward			×5 (into chair)	×11 (feet off floor)
Shuffled feet	×25
Stumbled or caught foot	×13	×1
Froze	×13
Feet crossed	×8
Balance recovery
Staggered	×15	×1	×2
Grabbed furniture	×5	×3	×2
Grabbed wall	×2
Grabbed banister/rail	×2
Sat quickly	×1	×1 with help		×1 with help
Caught by researcher	×1		×1
Quickly given stick			×1