The Utility of Standing Assist Chairs as Evaluated by Motion Tracking Analysis and Personal Interviews

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of three commercially-available standing assist chairs. The control chair was a normal chair without an assist function (chair 1), while the other three chairs provided varying levels of assistance (chairs 2-4). Subjects were ten elderly individuals (age range, 65-74 years) and five younger individuals (age range, 25-40 years). We measured the extent of posture displacement when standing up from the chairs using a video motion tracking system. Elderly subjects were further asked to subjectively evaluate the chairs in a personal interview. We found that the peak hip flexion angle decreased slightly when standing up from the assist chairs compared to the control chair. The difference between angles of the hip and knee joints was smallest when using the chair that offered a medium level of assistance (chair 3). In the subjective evaluation, seven of ten elderly subjects chose chair 3 as the best chair. Furthermore, most subjects answered that the assist chairs made standing up easier compared to the control chair. These results suggest that standing assist chairs enhance body motion stability and decrease the muscular burden associated with standing up.