Background Falls are one of the major health problems for the elderly. Since falls occur during activities such as moving, standing up, sitting down, going up and down steps, etc., if the function to help the elderly to support their body can be embedded in daily living environment, it will be possible to propose preventive measures tailored to the life functions and living environment of each elderly people.

Objective The purpose of this study is to clarify functions required to support the body when elderly people stand, sit, and climb up and down steps by analyzing the differences between the healthy elderly and the elderly with sarcopenia.

Methods The authors developed a measurement system with force sensors embedded in the table. Using the developed system, the authors measured the force and the elapsed time while the elderly support their bodies. The measurements were conducted for standing up, sitting down, going up and down a step under seven conditions: using a table, a shelf, a chair and so on.

Results Experiments were conducted on 110 elderly people aged 60s to 80s (75 healthy elderly and 35 elderly with sarcopenia). As for the vertical force, large force was applied when they griped objects such as the armrest of the chair. The healthy group ware able to apply twice as much force as the sarcopenia group in the case of the low table. Accordingly, planes such as the table and the shelf are not enough for supporting the body. About the elapsed time, the sarcopenia group took more time than the healthy group under the almost all conditions. Conversely, in case of sitting using the dining table, the elapsed time was almost same. It means that the sarcopenia group is no longer able to support the body in the process of sitting down.

Conclusions The authors clarified requirements to help the elderly to support their bodies and developed the newly designed table on the results.

Acknowledgment: This paper is based on results obtained from a project, JPNP20006, commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).