A comparative analysis of fall risk factors in the elderly and their automatic assessment

In the geriatric population, falls are a prevalent issue and can entail severe physical and psychological consequences. Fall risk assessment can provide early information in order to adopt prevention measures. However, there are many different reasons why a person might fall ranging from musculoskeletal deficits to cognitive, mental or sensory impairments, and cardiovascular diseases. While the majority of the approaches on fall risk assessment are based on gait analyses, other methods have shown that including considerations of other possible causes can significantly improve the prediction. Thus, for the development of an effective fall risk assessment and to choose the appropriate interventions, the underlying causes need to be identified. This review provides an overview of fall risk factors in the elderly population outlining the correlations between the causes, symptoms and fall risk. Moreover, the state of the art of assessment methods for the identified risk factors as well as for fall risk in general is presented.