Impact of age on body postural sway

Falls are common in the elderly. Almost 30% of people above 65 years of age fall each year and this figure increases to 40% for people older than 80 . Postural control plays a key role in fall prediction. Many Studies suggest that falls in the elderly are preceded by balance deficiencies in response to changes in sensory information . Postural control in older people has become an important area of research and it is usually assessed by measuring the amount of postural sway of the human body. In this study, an accurate quantitative method is proposed to evaluate body sway and its relationship with age using inertial sensors. The method is validated through experimental work and results are encouraging.