1.

0 INTRODUCTION

According to a new study from Johns Hopkins University published in the Journal of
Neurotrauma, falls have now surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of spinal
cord trauma among older adults in the United States.

The researchers analysed data from over 40,000 adults who had been treated in the
ER for spinal cord injuries between 2007 and 2009. They found that spinal cord
injuries, in general, for patients aged 65 and older increased by 11 percent over the
course of the study — rising from 79 people per million up to 88 people per million.
Spinal cord injuries from falls were at 30 percent for those over the age of 65 during
the study period, up from 23.6 percent when the study began in 2007.

Once someone has experienced the trauma of a fall, they can develop a fear of
falling again. The CDC also reports that “this fear may cause them to limit their
activities, which leads to reduced mobility and loss of physical fitness, and in turn
increases their actual risk of falling.”

Living with the fear of falling also likely increases feelings of anxiety, which could
lead a physician to prescribe anti-anxiety medication, such as Xanax. Xanax, along
with other benzodiazepines, has been the focus of recent studies that have
demonstrated that these types of drugs cause higher risks of falls and dementia.

Researchers at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands found that the elderly
were 3.5 times more likely to experience a fall if they were taking psychotropic drug
classes, which includes short-acting benzodiazepines. The authors of this study
tracked the health of over 400 elderly patients between January 2011 and April 2012,
recording the frequency of falls in the previous year, medications and performed
logistic regression analysis.

Out of the total 404 patients, 238, or 58.9 percent, had experienced one or more falls
in the past year, and 139, or 34 percent, used psychotropic medication. The
researchers concluded that “this relation should be explicitly recognized by doctors
prescribing for older people, and by older people themselves. If possible such
medication should be avoided for elderly patients especially with other risk factors for
falling.”
In a study published in the British Medical Journal, French researchers followed
1,063 participants with a mean age of 78.2 over the course of 15 years. All of the
participants did not show signs of dementia at the start of the study and did not begin
taking benzodiazepines until at least the third year of participation.

Rachel Goldberg, a Certified Yoga Therapist and Founder of Yoga Wings,

recommends establishing a regular yoga practice, regardless of your current age.
“The practice of yoga creates awareness in the body and mind. By gentle
movements and stretches, you’re better able to identify limitations and changes
within the body,” says Goldberg. “The various bends, twists and stretches that yoga
practice offer help to keep the joints lubricated and the spine supple. Yoga also
strengthens muscles and protects the bones. The yoga practice involves many
breathing exercises, which have calming effects on the respiratory system and
nervous system; breathing practices are proven to lower anxiety and stress.”
Goldberg went on to mention that some yoga practices have been specifically
developed for seniors — like Chair Yoga — so there’s no excuse for holding back.

These shocking statistics highlight the importance of preventing falls by taking

deliberate precautions. Age related losses in muscle strength, flexibility, or balance
reactions can be addressed through balance, strength assessments, or rehabilitation
therapy.

When an elderly person falls, their hospital stays are almost twice longer than those
of elderly patients who are admitted for any other reason. The risk of falling
increases with age and is greater for women than men. Annually, falls are reported
by one-third of all people over the age of 65. Two-thirds of those who fall will do so
again within six months. Falls are the leading cause of death from injury among
people 65 and older. Approximately 9,500 deaths in older Americans are associated
with falls each year. More than half of all fatal falls involve people 75 or over. Among
people aged 65 to 69, one out of every 200 falls results in a hip fracture. That
number increases to one out of every 10 for those aged 85 and older. One-fourth of
seniors who fracture a hip from a fall will die within six months of the injury.
The most profound effect of falling is the loss of functioning associated with
independent living. If you find yourself in need of rehabilitation care, ask your doctor
about Shell Point Retirement Community’s own Rehabilitation Centre. An
interdisciplinary team of therapists in our skilled nursing facility use cutting age
equipment and specific objective assessments to identify and treat deficits that may
lead to a future fall.
2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

ELDERLY EASY INJUED AND LESS ACTIVITY BECAUSE OF FEAR.

Older people are happy to be injured because young people are less likely to
exercise or he or she has experienced a recurrence and is repeated every time
doing heavy or sporting work.

DECRESED MUSCLE, STRENGHT AND BALANCE

Poor muscles can cause elderly people to easily get injuries and when they fall while
doing easy activities get injured. Balance is also one of the factors that shows an
easy person to get injured.
3.0 RESEARCH QUESTION
There are several research questions that can be disregarded from the problem
statements.

The research questions are as attached below:

What is the elderlies fear of?

why elderlies does not use the tools for exercise?

How the fears can avoid by elderlies?

4.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The research objectives are to identify, analyse, design and validate the technology of white
cane. All data collected are from the earlier researches that has been received from the main
topic which is regarding to the problem statement of existing white cane. Therefore, the
research objectives for this research are:

a) To identify the elderly afraid of

b) To analyses the impact of fear to elderlies.

c) To design equipment that prevent Elderlies fears.

d) To validate the suitability of equipment

5.0 RESEARCH SCOPE

This scope focused on young and old people who are visually impaired. For this
project, there are a few limitation that need to handle in develop the guidance
system. Besides, in this research the suitable design and the efficient of the
technology for a new product and device are very important. There are already have
a good product and interesting design, but the technologies they use mostly not
suitable in unfamiliar places. So the limitation in this research is to study what kind of
efficient technology and how it works to produces a better device for visual impaired
people when going to unfamiliar places by using a simple device or tools for
guidance system. The main focus of the research is among the persons with vision
disability. Other than that, the research is not only focusing only in one place.
Therefore, there is no specific place for users to use white cane whether it is in
indoor or even outdoor.
6.0 HYPOTHESIS

In conclusion, a study have been made to create a compact and portable tools which
is exclusively designed for visually impaired people. It will allow the visually person to
exercise through an unfamiliar environment with ease This is because, to assist the
visually impaired to walk and move without any obstacles. So, the efficient of
technology is very important to visual impaired people. With the efficient technology
and simple mechanism it can improve the existing product for the visual impaired
people and also can attract visual impaired people use the new device.

If the product can have an efficient technology and improvement in the device, there
will be less problem to visual impaired people, because they do not need to be afraid
to go out even though to a unfamiliar place.
LITERATURE REVIEW
female participation in high school level athletics has increased from
0.3 to 2.8 million. With this increased participation female injuries have
risen to parallel their male counterparts in most areas. Knee injuries,
however, in female athletes have increased at a percentage far
exceeding males in the same sports. Numerous studies have
demonstrated a 4-6x greater incidence of knee injuries in female
athletes as compared to their male counterparts in sports involving
cutting and jumping activities. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

ACL injuries are often categorized as having two basic causes; contact
and non-contact. Contact injuries occur typically when the athlete
comes in contact with or collides with another athlete. Non-contact
injuries occur without the influence of contact. It is the occurrence of
the non-contact injury in the female athlete that draws the most
attention and accounts for more than two-thirds of ACL injuries. The
non-contact ACL injury usually involves a landing, deceleration or
change of direction and occurs between 0-20 degrees of knee flexion
Multiple factors have been studied as potential causes for the disparity
between male and female rates of non-contact ACL injuries. Factors
can be grouped into three broad categories, anatomical, hormonal, and
neuromuscular. The mechanism by which non-contact ACL injuries
occurs appears to be one that can be influenced by training.

Anatomical differences between the female and male athlete such as

height, thigh length, pelvic width, and femoral notch width have all
been studied with variable demonstrated relationships to ACL injuries.
However, these variances are not modifiable by training program design
and thus not part of a prevention program. Hormonal differences,
specifically those related to the phases of the menstrual cycle have
demonstrated conflicting results in relation to ACL injury risk. This risk
is difficult to safely manage and has several potentially negative
effects. Therefore, this is not part of our program. Other areas not
addressed in this program are shoe type and surface type. There has
been much speculation surrounding surface type, however, review of
the literature demonstrates no consistent pattern for ACL injury rates
with shoe-surface interaction. Neuromuscular components, such as
strength and flexibility relationships, timing of muscular firing patterns
and biomechanics of motion, specifically knee valgus angles, have
been studied extensively in the literature as to their influence on the
rate of ACL tears and are considered modifiable by training technique
(10, 16). It is these components that are the focus of prevention and
rehabilitation programs.
8.1 SAMPLE OF QUESTIONNAIRE

BACHELOR OF DESIGN (INDUSTRIAL DESIGN)

FACULTY OF DESIGN AND ARCHITECHTURE

RESEARCH TITLE: Developing tools to overcome fear of injury

ISSUE: Elderly
RESEARCH LOCATION: Around UPM

Good day! I am third year industrial design student from university of Malaysia who is
Indicating a survey about DEVELOPING TOOLS TO OVERCOME
FEAR OF INJURY FOR ELDERLY? Your response will be used for survey purpose only and
helpful
For my product design. Thank you for your time and response!

Section A: Respondent’s Profile

1. Age: 18-29 years old ( ) 30-39 years old ( ) 40-49 years old ( )
 50-54 years old ( ) 55 years old ( )
2. Gender: Male ( ) Female ( )
3. Marital Status: Single ( ) Married ( ) Others ( )
4. Occupation :
____________________________________________________________________
5. Income : <3000 ( ) 3000-6000 ( ) 6000 and above ( )

SECTION B:
PART I : PERSONAL PREFERENCES ABOUT DEVELOPING TOOLS TO OVERCOME
FEAR OF INJURY FOR ELDERLY.
*Please tick one box for each statement below to show how much you agree or disagree
with it.

Strongly Disagre Strongly

disagre e Neutral Agree agree
e
1. How much your use to get
over the fear of failing in the
elderly.
2. Do you agree if the most
common cause falls in the
elderly?
3. How the tools can helping
you overcome this problems.
4. Does the chronic health
conditions effect our
lifestyle?

PART II : HOW THE TOOLS CAN HELP INJURY OF ELDERLY.

Strongly Disagre Strongly

disagre e Neutral Agree agree
e
1. By buying the expensive
tools.
2. By lend to the elderly the
tools.
3. Buy them medicine to cure
their injured.
4. Give the tools personally to
 them
5. The tools function to them or
not.

PART III : FEELING TO OVERCOME FEAR OF INJURY FOR ELDERLY

Strongly Disagre Strongly

disagre e Neutral Agree agree
e
1. Does it easy to understand
their personalities.
2. How much patient that is
needed to overcome this
problem.
3. How the elderly give their
feedback about the tools.
4. Does our skills is good
enough to help the injury of
elderly.
5. How their perception about
the tools.

SECTION C: THE DESIGN FACTORS.

Strongly Disagre Strongly

disagre e Neutral Agree agree
e
1. Do you like modem design.
2. Do you like multifunction
design?
3. Do you like aesthetics value
design?
4. Electronic tools can help
safety.
5. Support tools kit is made of
heavy materials that make
me tough to move.

SECTION D : SAFETY FACTOR AND PHYSICAL CHRACTERISTIC OF THE SUPPORT

TOOLS.

1. State that you more interested in safety tools that focusing on head or only part for
safety?

Disagree ( ) Agree ( )

2. State that you more interested in safety tools that focusing on bottom part or foot
safety only?
 Disagree ( ) Agree ( )

3. Do you interested on multifunction tools to safety?

Not interested ( ) Interested ( )

4. Which safety tools that you prefer electronic tools or mechanical manual control
tools?

Manual control tools ( ) auto control tools ( )

*THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION*

1.10 DATA ANALYSIS

A. PROFILE OF RESPONDENT

Profile Age Gender Marital Occupation Income

Status
Valid 30 30 30 30 30

Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Table 1 : Gender
Profile Frequency Percent (%) Valid Percent Cumulative
(%) Percent

Male 19 63 63 63

Female 11 37 37 100

Total 30 100 100

According to Table 1, it shows that male respondent are more than female respondent with
63% of male and 37% of female.

Table 2 : Age
Profile Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
(%) (%) Percent
18-29 years old 5 16.6 16.6 16.6

30-39 years old 7 23.4 23.4 40

40-49 years old 8 26.8 26.8 66.8

50-54 years old 5 16.6 16.6 83.4

55 years old and 5 16.6 16.6 100

above

Total 30 100 100

According to Table 2, in term of respondents’ age, the average is 18 to 55 years old.

Researcher divided the age into 5 categories. As shown above, researcher had some
difficulties on having respondents from the taking of supplement itself. Therefore, researcher
finds out to get the finding by asking questionnaire to respondents that having problems with
supplementation.

Table 3 : Marital Status

Profile Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
(%) (%) Percent
Single 12 40 40 40

Married 18 60 60 100

According to Table 3, all respondents comes from different marital status which is 12
(40%) Single and 18 (60%) Married.

Table 4 : Occupation
Profile Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
(%) (%) Percent
Government 14 46.7 46.7 46.7

Non- 16 53.3 53.3 100

Government

Total 30 100 100

According to Table 4, all respondents comes from 2 different occupation which is 14

(46.7%) work under Government and 16 (53.3%) work under Non-Government.
 Table 5 : Income
Profile Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
(%) (%) Percent
Under RM3000 7 23.3 23.3 23.3

RM3000-6000 12 40 40 63.3

RM6000 and 11 36.7 36.7 100

above

Total 30 100 100

According to Table 4, all respondents comes from 3 different income per month which
is 7 (23.3%) under RM3000, 12 (40%) RM3000-6000 and 11 (36.7%) RM6000 and above.

B.

Table 5 : Respondent of Consumer Attitude

Profile Mean Std. Deviation

1 2 3 4 5
How much your 0.0 20.0 26.6 53.3 0.0 3.0667 .70373
use to get over
the fear of failing
in the elderly.
Do you agree if 0.0 20.6 53.3 20.0 0.0 2.9333 .70373
the most
common cause
falls in the
elderly?
How the tools 0.0 20.0 20.6 53.3 0.0 3.0667 .70373
can helping you
overcome this
problems.
Does the chronic 0.0 20.0 26.6 53.3 0.0 3.0667 .70373
health conditions
effect our
lifestyle?

Table 5 showed the results of respondents regarding their attitudes in taking a

supplements on exercise . There are 20% of respondents is disagree and 26.6% respondent is
 a neutral and as much as 53.3% respondents choose agree. So, the (average=3.0667,
sd=0.070373) for does the chronic health conditions effect our lifestyle. Besides that, the
respondents who choose neutral about the rarely taking the supplement were in highest
percentage which is 53.3% and the (average=2.9333, sd=0.70373).

B.part II
Table 6 : Behavior on the Supplements
Profile Mean Std. Deviation

1 2 3 4 5
By buying the 0.0 6.66 20.0 66.6 6.66 3.7333 .70373
expensive tools.

By lend to the 0.0 0.0 33.3 26.6 40.0 4.0667 .88372

elderly the tools.

Buy them
medicine to cure 0.0 6.66 40.0 40.0 13.3 3.6000 .82808
their injured.

Give the tools

personally to 0.0 13.3 73.3 13.3 0.0 3.0000 .53452
them

The tools
function to them 0.0 20.0 53.3 26.6 0.0 3.0667 .70373
or not.
 Table 6 showed the results of respondents regarding behaviour on respondents. There
are 20% of respondents is neutral and 66.6% respondent is agree and as much as 6.66%
respondents choose strongly agree. So, the (average=3.7333, sd=0.070373) for taking a
supplement wisely. Besides that, the respondents who choose neutral about the did not know
a purpose for consuming supplements is 33.3% and the highest percentage which is 40% is
agree and the (average=4.0667, sd=0.88372). give the tools personally to themhave 2 same
results which is neutral and agree with 40%. A doctor aware of use of food supplements have
a higher neutral results which is 73.3% and the (average=3.0000, sd=0.53452) and the
toolsfunction to them or not have higher on neutral which is 53.3%.

D. SAFETY FACTOR AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTIC OF

THE SUPPLEMENT TOOL
Table 7 : Creating Supplement Tool
Profile Mean Std. Deviation

1 2 3 4 5
State that you more 0.0 6.66 20.0 66.6 6.66 3.7333 .70373
interested in easy
handling tool.

State that you more 0.0 0.0 33.3 26.6 40.0 4.0667 .88372
interested to easy
for carry tool.

Do you interested 0.0 6.66 40.0 40.0 13.3 3.6000 .82808

on multifunction
supplement tools?

Do you interested 0.0 13.3 73.3 13.3 0.0 3.0000 .53452

with the product
that comes with the
product that comes
with high aesthetic
values?

Do you prefer a 0.0 20.0 53.3 26.6 0.0 3.0667 .70373

long-term use
tools?
 Table 7 show the results of creating supplement tools. Majority of the respondents choose a
neutral as their answer.

1.11 RESULT AND CONCLUSION

In conclusion, an attempt has been made to make a compact and portable device
which is exclusively designed for elderly who lack of supplement. It will allow the elderly to
be reminded to take a supplement before or after doing an activities which has been set by the
user. The aim of this tool is to help individuals with lack of supplement in their daily routines.
With this tool they can manage their daily routine with a supplement. It is also easy to carry
and handle technologies.
From the data that researcher got from consumer, it will make researcher know what
the exactly problem for elderly who lack of supplement. By applying advanced method and
technology, the researcher can create a usefulness and create a new product which is has
better technologies for elderly who lack of supplement. Based on the respondent, from both
male and female they have their own response about the supplement problem. The existing
product does not suitable for them because it has limitation to user. So from that, researcher
can improve the design of that product that can be used for elderly with efficiently.