Smarthome study: A feasibility study to examine the use of smartphone technology to identify environmental falls risk factors in the home

Introduction: Despite the effectiveness of Occupational Therapy home assessments, patients may not receive these services due to the costs, shortages of therapists and the geographic location.

Objectives: To 1) establish the feasibility of identifying environmental risk factors using smart-photos, 2) develop a clinical protocol of methods and procedures and 3) examine the inter-rater reliability and content validity between occupational therapists when assessing smartphone photos using a standardised and reliable assessment tools (the adapted Westmead Home Safety Assessment checklist)

Method: Following ethical approval a procedure was developed and participants submitted smartphone photos of their bedroom, bathroom and toilet. Two independent occupational therapists then assessed the photos using the Westmead Home Safety checklist. Findings were analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics with SPSS.

Results: Of a total of 100 volunteers screened, 20 individuals participated in the study. A protocol for instructing patients to take home photos was developed and tested. Participants averaged 9.00 minutes (SD 4.401) to complete the task, while occupational therapists took approximately 8 minutes for reviews. The inter-rater reliability between the two therapists was 0.740 (95% CI: 0.452–0.888).

Conclusion: The study result was to a large extent feasible. We found the use of Smartphone technologies in the home-visit as a complimentary service to traditional approaches in order to reduce costs and fall incidents. The effective prescription of equipment in this trial was a major restriction.