Superiority of Intelligent Video Surveillance + Telealarm Over Telealarm Alone in Elderly People at Risk of Falling

Maintaining the elderly at home and preventing them from falling are major public health issues. The vast majority of elderly people wish to remain at home. The fear of a fall with prolonged standing is a frequent reason for institutionalization. There are few procedures that have been shown to be effective in preventing falls and their complications. Prolonged standing on the floor is a major complication that can lead to multiple events, including death.

Tele-alarms are widely used in France and in Europe, but their effectiveness in the event of a fall is poor and their use is restrictive (they require physical and mental capacities to activate). However, elderly people at risk of falling are often frail or dependent, suffering from cognitive disorders and sometimes polymorbid, which explains the large number of failures of tele-alarms. There are other alert systems, notably intelligent video surveillance systems such as the VA2CS. This is a video system placed in the home that analyzes the position of subjects in real time using algorithms based on artificial intelligence. The system works continuously without video capture and sends an alert with a photo if a person is lying down after a fall. The alert is confirmed after an operator has checked the photo capture on a dedicated platform. To date, it has a sensitivity and specificity of over 90% (manufacturer's data not published). Its performance is equivalent to other intelligent video surveillance systems published in the literature. This system is autonomous and does not rely on the abilities of the person at risk of falling. Intelligent video surveillance is an innovative technology which has not yet been evaluated in a geriatric care program, nor compared to a reference or analyzed from a quality of life or medico-economic perspective.

The hypothesis of this study is that intelligent video surveillance allows an exhaustive and early detection of the fall with a faster alert enabling to avoid prolonged standing on the ground and its consequences compared to the tele-alarm alone.