Impact of Manual Coordination on Usability of Clothing Fasteners in People With Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) manipulate clothing as part of their daily life. To understand how deteriorating motor skills affect the performance of dressing/undressing activities, this study investigated performance in handling clothing fastening. Participants were distributed into two groups: older adults with PD and neurologically matched healthy individuals (control group). Coordination and usability were evaluated. The PD group demonstrated worse performance than the control group in usability for types of buttons, and this was affected more intensely by small compared with large fasteners. This study demonstrated the need for increased awareness by clothing companies to develop products that can promote independence.