Maximising inclusiveness in Sports through Female-centric Innovation and TEchnology (MISFIT)

Using SMART garments to gather data and design exercise regimes to prevent injury and support safe physical activity for older women.

Workstream

DfA

Lead Organisation

KYMIRA® Ltd

Location

South East (England)

Theme

Managing Complaints of Ageing, Social Support Connections, Sustaining Physical Activity

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About the project

In the older female population, a particular barrier to remaining physically active is lower limb pain and injury risks. Women aged 50+ face particular barriers to getting and/or staying physically active. As well as an increased incidence of pain, discomfort and injury, this group are not well-supported in terms of assistive and appropriate sports technologies, sportswear and footwear — which tend to be developed for, and marketed to, young people.

Project MISFIT aims to address this gap in the Healthy Ageing space by developing a new movement analytics service that is designed specifically for older women. This will provide evidence-based information regarding bespoke exercise regimes and injury prevention to support continued safe participation in physical activity.

MISFIT will build on KYMIRA’s award-winning sports apparel solutions, which will be adapted for older females. The project uses smart garments equipped with sensors and pressure measuring insoles, to capture and integrate kinematic (movement), kinetic (force) and physiological data during everyday sports. MISFIT will enable large-scale data-gathering to provide population-level insights into injury mechanisms and optimum exercise regimes as women get older. MISFIT will translate the data and learnings to provide a sports advisory service to users. In a further innovation, award-winning sports footwear developer Ida Sports will use the service to inform the user-centric design of a new range of sports footwear to support women to continue in sport participation as they age.

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