Limitations and future perspectives
Analyzing TUG yields multidimensional information about motor behavior in everyday demands. Since we extracted the TUG walking sequence to analyze gait, we accepted a relatively short distance, which obviously implies acceleration and deceleration phases. This fact limits comparison with reference values recorded during continuous walking over a longer distance. However, we are convinced of TUG’s value, as it condenses various everyday tasks relevant for autonomy and thus reveals functional status. As TUG can deliver much more information than illustrated here, future investigations will need to focus on the sit-to-stand, turning, and stand-to-sit sequences. Moreover, we have not exhausted all the potential of capturing whole-body motion. In future analyses, we hope to derive additional movement parameters, e.g., from joint velocities during TUG and arm-movement.