Functional footwear design for preventing falls in the elderly: a systematic research based on fault tree analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to improve the elderly’s footwear for preventing falls in walking. The design method of the footwear for the elderly was proposed based on fault tree analysis (FTA). There were four phases for improving the footwear. At first, the fault tree diagram was built by determining the causes of the elderly falling, literature review and user interview were applied at this phase. Then, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. The minimal cut sets of the elderly falls were identified. Besides, seven core risk factors were proven as strong or moderate influences for the falling issues, and which are related directly or indirectly to the elderly’s footwear. Finally, the footwear optimizations were made, and the seven core risk factors were mainly considered in the design process. The proposed design method provided a series of specific steps to help to define the practical causes of the elderly falling. The improvements of the footwear were made reasonable in that way, as well as enabled an improved experience for the elderly users.