Classification of Diabetic Walking for Senior Citizens and Personal Home Training System Using Single RGB Camera through Machine Learning

Health improvement of the elderly in five Central Asian countries during COVID-19 based on difference game

In 2020, COVID-19 became a global pandemic. Older people are less resistant to the novel coronavirus. In order to ensure the health of the elderly population, the governments of five Central Asian countries should provide home medical services for the elderly or provide "green channel" to medical services. This "green channel" means providing a special service and treatment for the elderly in the hospital to ensure that they can safely and easily access the medical services they need. In order to study the application scope of various modes, this article constructs three modes of differential game: no special care, home medical care and "green channel". And the equilibrium results are compared and analyzed. Research shows that when the additional medical costs associated with house calls or "green channel" gradually increase, the social benefits to both the elderly and the government gradually decrease, and eventually it is less than the social benefits under the no-special care model. The greater the credibility of the government under the "green channel" service model, the greater the social benefits of the government. However, the greater the credibility of the government under the home medical service model, the smaller the social benefits of the government.

Analysis of Diabetic Foot Deformation and Plantar Pressure Distribution of Women at Different Walking Speeds

Official guidelines state that suitable physical activity is recommended for patients with diabetes mellitus. However, since walking at a rapid pace could be associated with increased plantar pressure and potential foot pain, the footwear condition is particularly important for optimal foot protection in order to reduce the risk of tissue injury and ulceration of diabetic patients. This study aims to analyze foot deformation and plantar pressure distribution at three different walking speeds (slow, normal, and fast walking) in dynamic situations. The dynamic foot shape of 19 female diabetic patients at three walking speeds is obtained by using a novel 4D foot scanning system. Their plantar pressure distributions at the three walking speeds are also measured by using the Pedar in-shoe system. The pressure changes in the toes, metatarsal heads, medial and lateral midfoot, and heel areas are systematically investigated. Although a faster walking speed shows slightly larger foot measurements than the two other walking speeds, the difference is insignificant. The foot measurement changes at the forefoot and heel areas, such as the toe angles and heel width, are found to increase more readily than the measurements at the midfoot. The mean peak plantar pressure shows a significant increase at a faster walking speed with the exception of the midfoot, especially at the forefoot and heel areas. However, the pressure time integral decreases for all of the foot regions with an increase in walking speed. Suitable offloading devices are essential for diabetic patients, particularly during brisk walking. Design features such as medial arch support, wide toe box, and suitable insole material for specific area of the foot (such as polyurethane for forefoot area and ethylene-vinyl acetate for heel area) are essential for diabetic insole/footwear to provide optimal fit and offloading. The findings contribute to enhancing the understanding of foot shape deformation and plantar pressure changes during dynamic situations, thus facilitating the design of footwear/insoles with optimal fit, wear comfort, and foot protection for diabetic patients.

Scoring of Human Body-Balance Ability on Wobble Board Based on the Geometric Solution

Many studies have reported that the human body-balance ability was essential in the early detection and self-management of chronic diseases. However, devices to measure balance, such as motion capture and force plates, are expensive and require a particular space for installation as well as specialized knowledge for analysis. Therefore, this study aimed to propose and verify a new algorithm to score the human body-balance ability on the wobble board (HBBAWB), based on a geometric solution using a cheap and portable device. Although the center of gravity (COG), the projected point of the center of mass (COM) on the fixed ground, has been used as the index for the balance ability, generally, it was not proper to use the COG under the condition of no fixed environment. The reason was that the COG index did not include the information on the slope for the wobble. Thus, this study defined the new index as the perpendicular-projection point (PPP), which was the projected point of the COM on the tilted plane. The proposed geometric solution utilized the relationship among three points, the PPP, the COM, and the middle point between the two feet, via linear regression. The experimental results found that the geometric solution, which utilized the relationship between the three angles of the equivalent model, enabled us to score the HBBAWB.