Quantitative motor function evaluation: the VAMA project experience

This paper aims at reviewing the experience maturated over the past decade by this group in the framework of the VAMA (Italian acronym for "evaluation of motor ability in the elderly") project. The objective of that research programme was to devise quantitative methods for assessing the locomotor functional limitation of a given individual and, as a further step, for investigating the relationship between relevant impairments and disability. This was accomplished through the biomechanical analysis of a battery of selected motor tasks as executed by groups of elderly individuals. The attainment of this objective entailed the following methodological steps: increasing the resolution with which the human movement is observed; enhancing the information contained in movement-related data by applying models of the musculoskeletal system; extracting the relevant information by using specific methods of knowledge discovery from databases.