iPhone Accelerometry Provides a Sensitive In-Home Assessment of Age-Related Changes in Standing Balance

Remote health monitoring has become increasingly important, especially in aging populations. We aimed to identify tasks that are sensitive to age-related changes in balance during fully remote, at-home balance assessment. Participants were 12 healthy young adults (mean age = 26.08 years, range: 18–33) and 12 healthy older adults (mean age = 67.33 years, range: 60–75). Participants performed standing tasks monitored via video conference while their balance was quantified using a custom iPhone application measuring mediolateral center of mass acceleration. We included three stances (feet together, tandem, and single leg) with eyes open or closed, with or without a concurrent cognitive task. Older adults demonstrated significantly more variable center of mass accelerations in tandem (p = .04, η²_p = .25) and significantly higher (p < .01, η²_p = .45) and more variable (p < .01, η²_p = .44) center of mass accelerations in single leg compared with young adults. We also observed that as task challenge increased, balance dual-task cost diminished for older, but not young, adults.