Smart balance board to improve balance and reduce fall risk: pilot study

Abstract

Falls in the elderly population is a significant public health concern, and there are up to 37.3 million people experiencing severe falls each year. Balance board is commonly used for balance training, however, the device is not widely used at home due to lack of interactive element and training guide. A new, effective, and widely applicable strategy to prevent falls is urgently needed due to the increasing number of falls in elderly worldwide. This work demonstrates the feasibility of FIBOD, as a smart balance board that is able to provide interactive balance training and objective assessment for balance. Two elderly subjects performed 24 sessions of training within four weeks. Results show that the training using FIBOD could improve balancing capability, reduce falling risk, and increase the motivation to do balancing training. This study shows the feasibility of FIBOD as a balancing training device to improve balance skill and reduce the occurrence of fall.