Wearing specialized suit, Physical Therapy students experience how age can impact their patient’s movement

There’s the saying that, “You’re only as old as you feel.” But what does it feel like to be old? 

This week, some students had a small glimpse into what it may physically feel like while their classmates had the chance to gain a new perspective on working with older patients. 

PT 713 is a lifespan course for second-year physical therapy students that is split into two parts, one of which looks at adult neurodegenerative conditions as well as the normal age-related changes in adults. Assistant Professor Rania Karim was looking for a way to show her students what those typical changes looked like and remembered a story about an aging simulation suit. 

The suit, the Age Gain Now Empathy System (AGNES), was created by the MIT Age Lab to help people better understand the physical challenges associated with aging. As its name suggests, the goal of the suit was to help people have empathy for what older adults experience and use that knowledge to improve store layouts, public transportation, workplaces and other environments. While it wasn’t designed to be an education tool, Karim saw an opportunity to give PT students the chance to analyze a patient’s movement and consider what interventions they wanted to use. 

“I reached out to the Age Lab and I’m thankful for the collaboration we have,” said Karim, who joined the MGH Institute in 2019. “We have them bring the suit to a lab here on campus which is a fun and unique activity for our students.”

The suit includes a weighted vest and weights on the wrists and ankles that make movement harder and weighted gloves to mimic the effects of arthritis. Bungee cords restrict movement that can happen due to muscle and joint changes in older adults. Goggles limit peripheral vision and foam on the bottom of shoes makes it harder to balance and can simulate diminished feeling in the feet. 

The class split into different groups with one person donning the suit while the others conducted functional assessments. In one group, student Lexi Nieves wore the suit and her group noticed an immediate change in her posture. A gait assessment showed that she was walking with flat steps and a shorter stride in one assessment. In another, where she had to step onto foam and touch items with her foot, Nieves noted that, “when you can’t feel the steps, it is harder to control.” She also reported that she was breathing harder than normal in some of the exercises since she had to expend more energy to complete the skills. 

While sitting in a chair and then standing up in the AGNES suit, Nieves shared that she didn’t have as much control as she sat, so she felt like she fell into the chair in the final moments of sitting down. Other students noticed that she had to lean forward to get up and had to check her balance. 

Balance became a key factor, especially when looking at the movement of reaching for items. The group noticed the changes Nieves had to make to compensate for reduced reach when trying to get to something above her head and how it shifted her balance and made falling backwards more likely to happen. 

Gaining this perspective was one of the goals of the lab. 

“I wanted students to have an appreciation for some age-related issues that can and can't be changed,” explained Karim. “The students need to be able to think through how to handle an older adult with multiple impairments. They need to understand that some things you might not be able to change." 

The PT students are not the only ones who are benefitting from the unique collaboration with the MIT Age Lab. 

“We have given feedback to the Age Lab on the suit and other ways that they may want to consider simulating physical challenges that older adults sometimes face,” noted Karim.

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