著者

岡田 宣子

出版者

社団法人日本家政学会

雑誌

日本家政学会誌 (ISSN:09135227)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.55, no.1, pp.31-40, 2004-01-15

被引用文献数

5

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To help the elderly and physically disabled put on and take off clothes unaided, it is important to consider the way clothes are made. In a trial, thirty-five elderly women aged 64 to 90 years and thirtythree younger women aged 21 to 29 years wore six experimental versions of clothing chosen at random. The comfort level was determined by adjusting the arm hole line in relation to the bust line (B.L.), using two fixed underarm sizes and three levels of looseness. In each case the following data was recorded : 1) the amount of time the subjects needed to put on and take off the garments ; 2) the degree of movement the subjects had as they dressed and undressed from a sitting position. Analysis of the above data led to the following conclusions : 1) It took the subjects significantly longer to get dressed than to get undressed ; 2) Regarding the looseness factor for the elderly subjects, women with standard body types required 28 cm, those with thick body types (shoulder breadth/bust girth<0.44) required 24 cm and those with slender body types (shoulder breadth/bust girth>0.48) needed between 28 cm and 32 cm. These figures were, on average, 12 cm greater than those for the younger subjects ; 3) Regarding the distance from the B. L. to the arm hole, the elderly subjects needed an additional 2 cm when the looseness was insufficient. This was not required by the younger subjects. The above data suggests that, for elderly people, there is a direct correlation between the way clothes are designed and the ease with which they may be used.