Designing of Hip Protectors for Elderly Women

Abstract

Wearing a hip protector is a method to prevent hip fracture. However, low adherence to wearing a hip protector is one of the major reasons of its low efficacy. Low adherence is associated with design problems of existing hip protectors. Therefore, the purpose of the study was twofold, first, to develop a hip protector prototype that addresses existing design problems, second to evaluate the developed prototype in terms of user acceptance. A review of literature, market research and an analysis of focus group interviews helped to determine design criteria that were integrated into the prototype to address existing design problems. The developed prototype was evaluated in three phases: phase 01 � conducted in a laboratory, phase 02 � overnight wear test and phase 03 � individual interview, where subjects provided their perceptions about different aspects of the hip protector prototype. One sample t-test, paired sample t-test and ANOVA were employed to analyze quantitative perceptual data. Qualitative data were analyzed using the framework approach. Analysis showed that all subjects had high positive perceptions about different aspects of the hip protector prototype. Subjects� high positive perceptions did not change significantly after overnight wear test. Subjects also considered the hip protector prototype completely nonrestrictive in terms of mobility. To get deeper insights into subjects� perceptions, future research suggestions are also offered in the conclusion section of this study.