고령자의 신체 기능이 의복 착용 행동에 미치는 영향

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of physical functions of elderly people on their clothing behavior and to provide basic information about manufacturing comfortable apparels for the elderly. A total of 219 people, with ages between 60s and 70s, participated in the survey and in the experiment to correlate their tendency of wearing clothes with the state of their physical functions. About 78.5% of the elderly showed eyesight deterioration in the subjective evaluation. Elders in their 60s raised their arms higher up in overhead reach, and showed shorter distance between middle fingertips in behind back stretch and in back scratch than elders in their 70s. Also, the former stretched farther to the floor in standing trunk flexion, and maintained more steady in one leg stand and in tandem stance than the latter. The narrower the movement range of the upper limb joints was, the more the elderly preferred upper garments with full front opening to those with half or no opening. The more inflexible the upper limbs and waist and the more unbalanced the body was, the more likely the elderly put on pants while sitting on the floor. The time taken to button up the shirt and to put on and take off pants showed a positive correlation with the overhead reach, the behind back stretch, the back scratch and the standing trunk flexion, whereas the former showed a negative correlation with the one leg stand and the tandem stance.