The Effect of EMG Features on the Classification of Swallowing Events and the Estimation of Fluid Intake Volume

Abstract

Nowadays, society is experiencing an increase in the number of adults aged 65 and over, and it is projected that the older adult population will triple in the coming decades. As older adults are prone to becoming dehydrated, which can significantly impact healthcare costs and staff, it is necessary to advance healthcare technologies to cater to such needs. However, there has not been an extensive research effort to implement a device that can autonomously track fluid intake. In particular, the ability of surface electromyographic sensors (sEMG) to monitor fluid intake has not been investigated in depth. Our previous study demonstrated a reasonable classification and estimation ability of sEMG using four features. This study aimed to examine if classification and estimation could be potentiated by combining an optimal subset of features from a library of forty-six time and frequency-domain features extracted from the data recorded using eleven subjects. Results demonstrated a classification accuracy of 95.94 ± 2.76% and an f-score of 94.93 ± 3.51% in differentiating between liquid swallows from non-liquid swallowing events using five features only, and a volume estimation RMSE of 2.80 ± 1.22 mL per sip and an average estimation error of 15.43 ± 8.64% using two features only. These results are encouraging and prove that sEMG could be a potential candidate for monitoring fluid intake.