Instrumental evaluation of gait smoothness and history of falling in older persons: results from an exploratory case-control study.

Gait smoothness, perceived when a person walks continuously and uninterruptedly, is associated with an undisrupted gait pattern, good sensorimotor control, and a lower risk of falling. The spectral arc length (SPARC) is a quantitative metric proposed for the evaluation of movement smoothness from the signal obtained by wearable sensors. In this small exploratory case-control study, older persons with and without a history of injurious falls underwent a turn-test while wearing an accelerometer: gait smoothness was estimated by calculating SPARC during the straight and turning phases. Cases seemed to exhibit lower SPARC values during the turning phase, in comparison with control.