Our goal is to identify clothing designs and safer and easier movement patterns for self-dressing. Twenty-four young women were asked to put on and take off pants of 3 different styles (straight leg pants, wide leg pants, and slim leg pants) using the following four support postures: standing with no support, leaning against a wall, sitting on a chair such that the feet do not touch the floor, and sitting on a chair with the feet touching the floor. We examined differences in body sway movements.
Putting on and taking off pants while standing forced the subject to stand on one leg while inserting the other leg into the pants and removing it, which caused the subject to lean considerably in the opposite direction to the leg being lifted. This step was considered to be the cause of swaying among elderly women when they put on and take off pants. This sideways swaying can be significantly decreased by having the subject sit during dressing, regardless of the height of the chair. In addition, swaying movements were greater for dressing in the standing position for slim leg pants than they were for the other styles due to the greater forward inclination that was required.
