A Walker Designed for Parkinson's Disease Patients Based on a Survey in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

A neurodegenerative disorder like Parkinson's disease (PD) causes tremor, rigidity, postural instability and gait problems in early stages and thus poses an undetermined threat to the social and personal lives of the elderly in developing countries due to insufficient survey and research activities. However, several types of assistive devices (AD) are available in the market and the real patients' requirements are often overlooked in their design. This paper presents the process of design and fabrication of an innovative walker for PD patients. This walker has a non-modular foldable design which incentivizes patients to stand up straight and walk without the help of others. A survey on patients battling parkinsonism and practicing doctors was performed in public hospitals in Dhaka, Bangladesh and relevant engineering data was derived from it using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) which can also help visualize further market research opportunities. A finite element analysis (FEA) was performed before the walker was constructed for safety. It was handed to several volunteers for use and their responses were satisfactory. The designed walker may serve as a low-cost AD which is likely to improve a patient's posture and overall lifestyle and therefore, it can act as a means of rehabilitation.