Influence of Sportswear Shape on Dressing Motion and Muscle Activity in Dummy Elderly Persons

Abstract

The long-term goal of this study is to design sportswear for the elderly. Previously, we reported dressing motion and muscle activity on young and dummy elderly persons while they are putting on four different styles of sportswear: long-sleeved, sleeveless, zippered, and zipper-less. In the part of the study reported in the present paper, we photographed their movements while they were putting on the four styles of sportswear and measured the wearing time, maximum working area, and muscle activity. Further, we investigated how the sportswear style influenced the psychological burden. From motion analysis, we found that, when the dummy elderly persons pass an arm through the sportswear at process (2), the wearing times for sleeveless sportswear were lower than those for long-sleeved sportswear. In addition, the maximum working area and %MVC (percentage maximum voluntary contraction) values for zippered sportswear were higher than those for zipper -less sportswear. When wearing the sportswear at process (3), the maximum working area and %MVC values for zipper-less sportswear were higher than those for zippered sportswear. From these results, it was concluded that the sportswear style influences wearing time, maximum working area, and muscle activity.