6 ms·
Dance mat-style game helps stop older people falling
- vyrotek 3y agohttps://archive.is/scpfB https://archive.is/scpfB
- leereeves 3y agoThe paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02739-0 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02739-0 And a non-paywalled article from the university: https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/gamified-home-exercises-can-help-prevent-falls-older-people https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/gamified-home-exerc... The result: > The rate of falls reported monthly over 12 months—the primary outcome of the trial—was significantly reduced in the exergame training group compared with the control group (incidence rate ratio = 0.74, 95% confidence interval = 0.56–0.98)
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- agumonkey 3y agoAside from that, having health issues even if younger, I was surprised how valuable deadlift (with 5 to 10kg kettle bells) and squats were important for your body. The ability to go down softly without efforts or joint pain is such a relief.
- maccard 3y agoPretty much every study ever has concluded that some exercise >>>>> no exercise, and also that moderate exercise >>>>> some exercise. Total anecdote, but aside from injuries and a brief period of wildly overtraining for university rowing, I have _never_, in my life thought after exercising "I feel worse than I did before starting". It's basically the magic pill.
- agumonkey 3y agoyeah sure, physical exercise is vital, and even a few minutes everyday is a great boost for a lot of things in you but I used to run / bike, and this didn't address the same movement as deep squat / dead lift affect
- TomK32 3y agoRunning plus cycling is quite a feat already, if you do it serious. I'm a cyclist and 15 months into running I still dislike it but also know it's a good thing for me.
- agumonkey 3y agoI was a runner first, but years made my knee joints brittle, and biking is amazing to avoid pain there. And talking about knee joints, single leg squats are magic to restore them a bit. I was quite surprised.
- djmips 3y agoWhy not swim.
- agumonkey 3y agoI think about it regularly (cause swimming is one of the best kind of exercise I know of too) but it's less convenient logistically and also psychologically, you can't swim alone unless you have access to the sea or a clean calm river.
- djmips 3y agoYeah good point about solitary swimming.
- PeterStuer 3y agoCarefull though. I busted my knees combining intense ice skating (multiple hours per day) and explosive running/jumping (basketball). Two very distict movements for that area.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- techwizrd 3y agoI would be very interested to see how this compares across demographics (think NHANES). I wonder if it could be turned into a check where clinicians measure baseline performance and use it to track reduction in performance over time. If it works, it could be an inexpensive way to identify individuals at risk of a fall before their motor control degrades enough to be at high risk.
- nonrandomstring 3y agoAn occupational therapist test I've seen is to lift one foot off the floor slightly and remain balanced with eyes closed. Time is the measure and anything over 10 seconds is "healthy".
- JKCalhoun 3y agoReminds me, I miss StepMania. Off to build a new dance pad....
- whyhat 3y agoHi, Mr. Calhoun! I’m sorry this is such an unorthodox way of reaching out to you, and I know this is probably off topic for the original thread, but I couldn’t really find another way to contact you. I had posted this same message on a comment yesterday, but it was pretty deep in a thread, so I thought I’d try again. I’m trying to get in touch with you about your raspberry pi TV project. I’m a 16 year old high school student, and my best friend loves retro tv and custom gifts, so I figured a great going away to college gift would be a project like this, loaded with all his favorite old (legally obtained) tv shows, and the videos of various musicals we’ve done together. I’ve been looking for a project very similar to yours for a few months now, and the closest thing I’ve found is a video describing a portable version of the project by a YouTube channel called Irish Craig Party. Unfortunately, it was the only video on the channel, the comments were turned off, and they had zero social media/github attached to the channel. I had to keep looking around for similar projects. I was totally willing to do some of the coding myself, but some fundamental challenges like the scheduling or the real time playback were a bit too intense for my admittedly barebones coding skills. Now I humbly come to you. You had mentioned that you were planning to open source it in a thread from a while ago, but you were debugging. Is there any way to get the code for this? I already have the vast majority of the parts, I’m willing to debug and modify it in any way, I just need the foundations. Thank you for hearing me out, I’m sorry for not finding a better way to reach out, and thank you for your time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- stedaniels 3y agohttps://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/UHF https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/UHF
- fxtentacle 3y agoFor discussing custom dance pad designs, I love this discord: https://discord.gg/TCn3emnwZU https://discord.gg/TCn3emnwZU My attempt is the one where you have one USB-C board per pad, so that I can use USB-PD instead of an external power source to drive the LEDs
- TomK32 3y agoGamifying fitness works fine, peer pressure does too. The gym I (41, male) go has quite a lot of pensioners due to the wide range of courses they offer. It's quite normal there to have a yoga course with people ranging ages from 20 to 70+.
- imhoguy 3y agoThis reminded me my grandparents who used to go to dance parties up to their 80s. They didn't have any falls I recall until they got onto deathbed.
- dessimus 3y agoSome of the past required training I had to do while in IT for Healthcare mentioned that a high proportion of falls in elderly patients isn't always due to a physical ailment but rather for the social attention it can bring.
- aaron695 3y agoThis is pretty interesting. The cognitive-based game is not what I expected - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-smartstep-system-used-for-A-motor-cognitive-training-and-B-cognitive-training_fig2_334943421 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-smartstep-system-use... (Which they say didn't work) Video of the smart±step https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQxzJDiTX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQxzJDiTX4 which looks very boring but there seems to be other videos of walking through a village? This is the hard bit - "2 hours a week" But we have an old age problem. There is neither the skilled or unskilled labor to keep the homes running. Just having an activity that people can do for 2 hours a week is a sell. Throw in less falls, which will mean less labor, is a sell. Subsidies because it's medical. smart±step is not the only one around, it'd be interesting to see what stopping these being more ubiquitous. It's hard to tell if it actually works to stop falls, but the theory seem good.
- Steve44 3y agoWe've still got the original Wii and use it with WiiFit and the Balance Board. Some of the games are fairly active too, they get you standing up, jigging around, stretching, and generally moving. It's great to get feedback on things like their yoga moves, I firmly believe they are good for core strength and balance. I appreciate it's not as rigid or intense as a gym could be, but it's very handy and fits in as and when we can. I've always been on the same opinion as another poster that "some exercise >>>>> no exercise, and also that moderate exercise >>>>> some exercise". To put that in context, we're older, comparatively sedentary, and my wife has some medical issues with bone & muscle.
- jbm 3y agoThe Wiifit Balance Board is very cool and one of the very very rare cases where I tried to play with the hardware. I went through blog article after blog article, trying to figure out why I couldn't connect to it through Linux. Then I realized there was already a proper device driver made years ago and the blog articles were vastly out of date. You can get the data directly using evdev on linux w/ Python. It was such a fun device for a project too, my daughters enjoyed jumping on the balance board just to see what numbers it would toss out. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be that hard to use it to develop balance games for Linux - the only problem is with battery life and the annoyance when pairing it.
- nottorp 3y agoHey, are there any games like the wii fit thing or ddr for modern consoles? I mean, including the mats/boards. It's kinda too late to get an original Wii but I do have a PS5.
- throwaway892238 3y agoAs someone who got very good at DDR at a young age, and is now older, it's clear that if you do any exercise which challenges your balance when you're young, your balance will be better when you're old. I haven't practiced slackline or DDR in decades and I don't really exercise now, but I can still walk across a log found during a hike like it's nothing. Strength may come and go, but balance is clearly some kind of long-term muscle memory.
- mvc 3y agoI dunno about that. I'm "getting on a bit" as they say. I was pretty active as a kid and am still a reasonably active 42 yr old now but I've noticed that when I go a few weeks without regular activity and the strengh diminishes, the balance goes with it. I can totally understand how with ankles or core a bit weaker it would be easy to lose balance. Dunno how regular your hikes are but they are probably keeping you strong where you need to be, especially if there are hills involved.
- LorenPechtel 3y agoI believe it degrades with a lack of use, it's just that you started from a higher level. And note "found during a hike"--you're using your balance skills all the time out there when the ground is uneven. And hiking is certainly exercise.
- BLKNSLVR 3y agoI heard that falls are lethal for the elderly. A fall can cause an injury, which requires rest to recuperate from, which deteriorates muscles that help balance, therefore being more likely to have another fall soon after recovering from the first. Leading to an eventually fatal cascade of events. Post back surgery I had to do core and back strengthening and balance exercises. Standing on one leg, keeping my back straight, pivoting at the hips to pick up a water bottle or basketball, then stand up straight again, and repeating the action 10 times whilst staying on one leg, picking the thing up, and putting it back down. I felt like I was a 3-year old with how poor my balance was. It also made my feet hurt like a child made to walk to the shops. Just tried the exercise again now after not doing it for a long time. Yep, still terrible. I actually thought it would be much easier since I do inline skating regularly, and can roll on one skate for a decent while even down to pretty low speeds. More to add to the regular fitness routine... When I remember, whilst brushing my teeth, I'll stand on one foot for 30 seconds at a time. It's also surprisingly hard and tiring.
- lukan 3y ago"When I remember, whilst brushing my teeth, I'll stand on one foot for 30 seconds at a time. It's also surprisingly hard and tiring." Still, do it as often as possible. The trick is to make it a habit, to build it into your regular dayroutines. Also when you are waiting for something, when you are lying in bed - all opportunities to exercise and strenghten your weaknesses.
- adrian_b 3y agoThat would be good, but even better would be to practice daily a more complex exercise, like a tài-jí-quán form or a karate kata (executed slowly and without excessive force), both of which are excellent mobility and balance exercises for elderly people. I doubt that "exergames" are as efficient as these traditional and proven methods, which require minimal space and time and no equipment.
- lukan 3y agoWell, or Qui Gong. But not everyone can open themself towards it, so maybe for some those games are beneficial.
- djmips 3y agoI'm not surprised, when I broke my leg and on the mend I had lost agility from disuse. Agility exercise is a great thing to have as part of your routine.