Health

Garmin, Agi-equilibre and Predical Empower Seniors to Keep Active

30 October, 2019

Keeping Active to Prevent Falls – Agi-equilibre

For older people, the fear of falling and the reality of the consequences if they do are serious issues. Agi-equilibre, an association of athletic coaches in France, has set the goal of helping seniors increase and sustain physical activity to help prevent falls.

In France more than a third of people 65-plus fall at least once a year, with that figure increasing to over half in people over 85. With consequences including an increased chance of subsequent falls, hospitalisation, loss of autonomy, increased isolation, and even death, the need to decrease the risk of falling is great.

Based on years of experience helping older and disabled patients, Agi-equilibre has designed a one-year programme to increase the balance, strength and overall physical fitness of senior participants with the use of a Garmin Forerunner 30. This simple-to-use GPS running watch enables users to track their step count and heart rate. During the first five weekly sessions, each participant learns exercises to repeat on their own at home and how to use their watch to track their activities.

Subsequent sessions and activities are monitored by coaches who use the data collected from the Garmin wearables to motivate and encourage each person according to their individual health profile and requirements. The Forerunner 30 gives users awareness of and responsibility for their own physical health while having the support of professionals and other programme participants.

Garmin, Agi-equilibre and Predical

Predical Science, a company specialising in software development using data from connected devices, has created an application for Agi-equilibre coaches based on data integration with the Garmin Health API. This allows the programme to be deployed on a large scale while keeping coaches in touch with the progress and needs of each participant. And by employing the Forerunner 30, users benefit from a great range of features, an easy-to-read screen and a simple learning experience.

With the first 200 seniors equipped with a watch in 2019 in the Paris metro area, the programme will soon be able to demonstrate the benefits of ongoing monitoring and motivational support by using wearables and connected apps for coaches and physical therapy teams.