Frailty Assessment Using a Floor Panel-Type Device by Measuring Center of Pressure

In Japan, the demographic shift towards an older population presents significant challenges, particularly in elderly care. Early detection of frality---a precursor to more severe dependency---is essential for maintaining health in older adults. This study introduces a novel floor panel-type device that measures both weight and center of pressure oscillations, facilitating the early identification of frailty through routine activities like standing up, sitting down, and walking. Unlike video or audio monitoring, this method minimizes privacy concerns, making it more suitable for assessing activities of daily living. We evaluated these metrics in a cohort of 28 individuals aged between 64 and 89 years and utilized the k-nearest neighbor algorithm to correlate these measurements with frailty, defined by the revised J-CHS criteria. Our analysis achieved a predictive accuracy of approximately 72.6 % for frailty detection during sitting down actions. These findings underscore the utility of continuous monitoring of weight and center of pressure in daily environments such as bathrooms and hallways for predicting health deterioration.