Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

The lecture, entitled ‘Mobility in older adults‘, will be moderated by Professor Steffen Leonhardt, Chair holder of the Medical Information Technology (MedIT) at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, on Thursday, 30 January 2025.

Professor Wiebren Zijlstra, Head of the Institute of Movement and Sport Gerontology at the German Sport University Cologne, will deliver a presentation on factors which underly age-related changes in mobility based on experimental laboratory-based studies as well as studies of real-life mobility.

In the abstract that precedes the lecture, Professor Zijlstra outlines the various challenges presented by mobility in daily life, such as finding the way to a target location, while ensuring safe progression by continuously perceiving the environment and adapting locomotion if needed, e.g. in order to avoid potential collisions with obstacles, other pedestrians, or traffic. Such adaptive control of locomotion requires physical and cognitive functions and, even without overt pathological conditions, age-related changes in functioning may cause older persons to show a reduced mobility and an increased fall risk. Mobility limitations are associated with reduced quality-of-life, a plethora of negative health outcomes, and an increased morbidity and mortality. According to Professor Zijlstra, it is important to understand factors that contribute to an age-related reduction in mobility and when possible develop effective interventions.

„Results of recent studies show that physical capacity alone is poor in predicting older adults’ mobility performance in real-life. Other studies show that age-related changes in cognition, especially the so-called executive functions, are associated with a reduced mobility and an increased fall-risk,“ the specialist points out.

Executive functions are crucial for adaptive locomotion, as they enable a person to monitor behaviour in relation to the environment and to adapt behaviour when necessary. By focusing on two key components of executive functions (cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control), this talk will also present recent results from studies that aim to better understand the role of cognitive control during mobility-related tasks.

Despite an abundance of mobility studies and increasing insight in factors that negatively impact on mobility in older persons, it is yet unclear to what degree the combination of these factors predicts real-life mobility, Professor Zijlstra continues in his apstract. Only a limited number of recent studies considered various potential mobility determinants by combining measures from physical, cognitive, and psycho-social functioning.

„These studies showed that real-life mobility cannot yet be predicted very well. Taken together, these findings necessitate more well-focused studies of real-life mobility in various groups of older adults, as well as experimental studies of older adults’ performance of complex mobility tasks which resemble daily life conditions,“ he concludes.

The ‘Colloquium on Biomedical Engineering and Related Areas’ is a regular series of events organised by RWTH Aachen University. The objective of the series is to facilitate interdisciplinary education in these fields and to encourage the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas.

A cordial invitation is extended to all students, clinicians, engineers and scientists to attend this illuminating lecture and engage in discourse with experts in the field of biomedical engineering.

The event will take place from 5 to 5:45 pm at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 20, 52074 Aachen, Germany, seminar room 2.70. It will be coordinated by Prof. Dr. Klaus Radermacher, Chair of Medical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University. For further information please contact the secretariat at meditec@hia.rwth-aachen.de or call +49-(0)241-80 23870.