Measurement System for Unsupervised Standardized Assessment of Timed “Up & Go” and Five Times Sit to Stand Test in the Community—A Validity Study

Abstract

Comprehensive and repetitive assessments are needed to detect physical changes in an older population to prevent functional decline at the earliest possible stage and to initiate preventive interventions. Established instruments like the Timed “Up & Go” (TUG) Test and the Sit-to-Stand Test (SST) require a trained person (e.g., physiotherapist) to assess physical performance. More often, these tests are only applied to a selected group of persons already functionally impaired and not to those who are at potential risk of functional decline. The article introduces the Unsupervised Screening System (USS) for unsupervised self-assessments by older adults and evaluates its validity for the TUG and SST. The USS included ambient and wearable movement sensors to measure the user’s test performance. Sensor datasets of the USS’s light barriers and Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) were analyzed for 91 users aged 73 to 89 years compared to conventional stopwatch measurement. A significant correlation coefficient of 0.89 for the TUG test and of 0.73 for the SST were confirmed among USS’s light barriers. Correspondingly, for the inertial data-based measures, a high and significant correlation of 0.78 for the TUG test and of 0.87 for SST were also found. The USS was a validated and reliable tool to assess TUG and SST.