Falls in the elderly: designing human-centred hip protection for older people

髋部骨折在老年人中是一种非常严重的疾病，极大地增加了发病率和死亡率，并减少了健康寿命(Cianferotti等人。2015年)。目前的髋关节保护器(HP)由内衣组成，内含集成或可拆卸的护垫，提供髋关节周围的冲击保护。这些产品的接受度受到以下因素的影响：不适、不喜欢外表、上下困难，以及失去日常生活的独立性，如上厕所(Sims-Gould等人)。2014)我将开发原型，以了解髋部保护如何设计为外观、手感和操作方式，以一种对老年人的社会文化和生活方式愿望敏感的方式，同时降低因跌倒导致髋部骨折的风险。以人为中心的设计(HCD)将直接与产品的潜在用户接触，为设计开发提供信息。HCD语言将源于这项研究，拥抱用户感知的反思意义，而不仅仅是以技术为中心的当前设计的功能和美学判断。

Hip fractures are a very serious condition in the elderly, greatly increasing morbidity and mortality, and decreasing healthy life years (Cianferotti et al. 2015). Current hip protectors (HP) comprise of underwear containing integrated or removable pads, providing impact protection around the hip joint. The acceptance of these products is compromised by, discomfort, dislike of appearance, difficulties getting on and off, and loss of daily living independence such as toileting (Sims-Gould et al. 2014).I will develop prototypes to understand how hip protection can be designed to look, feel and operate, in a way that's sensitive to sociocultural and lifestyle aspirations of elderly people, whilst reducing the risk of hip fractures caused by falls. Human-centred design (HCD) will directly engage with people who are potential users of the product to inform the design development. A HCD language will stem from this research, embracing the reflective meaning perceived by users,beyond solely technology-centred functional and aesthetic judgements of current designs.