Design and ergonomic evaluation of garments for long-term bedridden patients

Purpose On the basis of demand survey feedback from individuals with disabilities and caregivers, this study designed two sets of functional garments for long-term bedridden patients, with the primary objective of increasing convenience and reducing the physical workload of caregivers. Design/methodology/approach Wear trials were conducted by employing 24 subjects to perform 11 different tasks to compare the performance of the two newly developed garments with that of conventional hospital patient apparel. Task operation time, heart rate (HR), electromyography (EMG) signals, and subjective perceptions were evaluated. Findings The new functional garments reduced the time required to perform tasks by 29–79%, maintained the average HR of caregivers at approximately the resting threshold and resulted in a 37–74% reduction in the root mean square (RMS) of the EMG at the arm muscles in the private and thigh nursing tasks. All the subjective and objective evaluation results of the caregivers demonstrated varying degrees of correlation. Practical implications This study has practical implications for the design of functional clothing for long-term bedridden patients and provides guidance for evaluating the ergonomics of garments that can be utilized only with caregiver support. Originality/value In contrast to previous studies that focused primarily on individuals with disabilities while overlooking the indispensable role of caregivers in the nursing process, this study shifted its emphasis to long-term bedridden patients who relied exclusively on caregivers for daily activities. Additionally, this study attempted to analyze the correlations between the evaluation parameters to explore the relationships between the evaluation methods.