Mobility and functional capacity estimated in clinical and free-living settings to support older adults and clinical populations: Aging and osteoarthritis in Canada

Osteoarthritis (OA) is an incurable degenerative joint disease characterized by the loss of cartilage and changes in bone, resulting in pain and reduced function for over four million Canadians. Knee OA is a global disability contributor, linked to aging frailty. The end-stage treatment for knee OA is total knee arthroplasty (TKA), which involves the replacement of damaged parts of the knee with prosthetics. However, clinical decision making remains a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to adequately integrate patient-specific disease severity, pain, depression, physical activity, and everyday function. Wearable sensors permit the collection of detailed movement data in-clinic or real-world settings with the potential to support treatment decisions.

This project aims to:
(1) identify functional measures most sensitive to change post-TKA,
(2) determine if improvements in pain and functional capacity post-TKA result in actual changes to free-living mobility, and
(3) determine if TKA restores mobility to the level of healthy age-matched controls.