The Effect of Using Supportive Vests for Paralyzed Patients on Caregivers’ Fatigue

Abstract

This research aimed to apply knowledge of ergonomics to engineering design, focusing on supporting paralysis patients and reducing fatigue for caregivers through the development of a patient support shirt. The shirt, composed of two pieces (front and back), utilized Toray fabric, elastic tape, and rubber pads to provide supportive attachment pressure. The result revealed that the most satisfaction was reducing pain patient using support shirt and movement (X̄ = 4.97, S.D. = 0.08), the second was satisfaction with design on average at the highest level (X̄ = 4.74, S.D. = 0.45). For caregivers, take care the patient showed that the violent level caused take care the patient was the highest reduced; the violent at right upper arm 58.73%, the right lower back 53.78% and the back side 50.19%, respectively. In addition, the result of evaluation of the illness caregiver taking care of a patient found that after using the patient support shirt had an effect on reducing the violence pain. In addition, the satisfaction level results from questionnaires for both paralysis patients, and the caregiver using the patient support shirt revealed the greatest level of satisfaction on all questions.