title: Changes of muscular load with aging in the motion of pulling up disposable diapers.
abstract: To elucidate how aging affects the muscular load required for pulling up pants-style disposable diapers, and why some elderly people cannot pull up the rear of their disposable diapers well, we evaluated the electromyogram (EMG) of 8 young subjects (21.5+/-1.5 years) and 7 elderly subjects (71.6+/-6.1 years). EMG was measured for four muscles--biceps brachii, deltoid, brachioradialis, and flexor carpi ulnaris. We evaluated the muscular load during a series of motions for pulling a disposable diaper up at the front and the rear of the body using an EMG-Video Synchronous Split Method. The analysis revealed that the front and the rear integral EMG of elderly subjects were both significantly larger than those of young subjects for all four muscles. For the deltoid and flexor carpi ulnaris muscles, the maximum amplitude of EMG when pulling up the rear of the disposable diapers was significantly larger in the elderly subjects than the young ones. These results suggest that the muscular load involved in pulling up the rear of disposable diapers may increase due to changes in body habitus caused by aging. Since muscular strength decreases with age, it seems likely that the elderly individuals will eventually be unable to pull up the rear of their diapers.
authors.affiliation: Shizuoka Industrial Research Institute, Shizuoka, Japan. yi@iri.pref.shizuoka.jp
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi Yi
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Yoto
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakuragawa
authors.forename: Taka-aki
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Hisae
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Rumi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yamaki
authors.forename: Yoshihisa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujioka
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katsuura
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D041382:Diapers, Adult; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009038:Motion; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D014741:Video Recording; D055815:Young Adult