Study on the Lower Garments Dressing and Undressing Portable Support System for Independent Daily Toilet Activity*

Independent excretion is crucial for maintaining self-worth among individuals. Toilet care significantly reduces the quality of life for care receivers while imposing physical and mental burdens on caregivers. Even if care receivers can move to toilets using a walker independently, they often require assistance with dressing and undressing their lower garments, such as trousers and underwear. A walker that assists with dressing and undressing lower garments could not only safely increase opportunities for independent walking to prevent disuse in any place, but it could also reduce the burden of caregivers. The purpose of this study is to develop the lower garments dressing and undressing portable support system attached to a walker and used by the care-receiver with independent gait function to support their daily toilet activity with dignity. In addition, we confirmed the basic performance of independent dressing and undressing using the basic experiment. The system comprised three units: the weight support, lower garment stretching, and lower garment up-and-down units. The weight support unit assisted the user in walking and maintaining a standing posture. The lower garment stretching unit comprised the lazy tong mechanism, which stretches the waistband of the lower garments on hooks by extending the mechanism to perform friction-based holding and reduce friction between the skin and lower garments during dressing and undressing. The lower garment up-and-down unit raises and lowers the lower garments, which are held by the lower garment stretching unit. The lower garment stretching unit and up-and-down unit were attached to both sides of the weight support unit. We conducted a basic experiment involving a series of dressing and undressing movements in the toilet with one of the authors of this study to confirm the basic performance of the system. Consequently, the system was able to dress and undress the lower garments up to the target height without removing them. In conclusion, we confirmed that the system had the basic performance to support for dressing and undressing the lower garments in the toilet.