We have been contacted by a student from Glasgow University, who has requested your help in giving him some ideas as to a product he could develop for his final year project. Please see his request below:

My name is Alex and I am studying Product Design Engineering at the University of Glasgow. I’ve decided to use my final year project as an opportunity to design something to help the daily lives of people with arthritis. My focus environment is around the home, and daily tasks that are made more difficult by arthritis. I’m currently in the research phase of my project and am aiming to find out what are the hardest things to do at home in order to design a product that can resolve these issues. Having spoken to my grandparents who have arthritis, I have an idea of the problems they have and aim to get a broader perspective on how it affects different people.

I’ve created a short list of topics that I’m interested in finding out more about and that would be great to get feedback about:

What are some of the more difficult things to do around the house?
Which products that require grip, movement or lifting are difficult or painful to use?
Does your arthritis stop you from using the kitchen to it’s full potential?
Have you found existing arthritis aids to be helpful or not?
What has or hasn’t worked for you and is price an issue?
Are there any things you feel that there isn’t a suitable aid for?
How do you find inserting and removing plugs from their sockets?
Do you find a lot of food packaging hard to open? Which in particular? Would you find “easy opening” packaging solutions better than special opening products?
Concerning supports, such as hand splints, do you find them comfortable or too limiting in movement?

If you are able to help, Alex has asked if we can have your responses to him by Friday 15th October. Please feel free to post them on the forum, and I will ensure they are forwarded to Alex.

Many thanks again for your help and support

Alx

As Kathleen says pulling back the final polythene seal on milk cartons under the plastic tab are a nightmare. They are so small and I cannot grip them and pull at the same time.

I also have difficulty with some shampoo and shower gel bottles. Some are made of such rigid plastic that you need to squeeze hard to get the contents out and I find it impossible.

To pass the time away at home I do cross stitch and card making. After a while my wrists start hurting but the splints I have are very limiting. I find I have to put away my hobby because of the pain.

Just a few suggestions I can think of. Good luck with your project.

Jackie

Hi all,

I have seen a solution for this online .. but it looks rather clonky (and looks just as involved as doing it manually) .. and that is ..a tool to enable me to get my tablets out of the blister packs they come in .

I do them once a week and load a 7 day dispenser thingy .. and to be honest .. it does my hands no favours .(thats 49 openings of blister packs ) I do it all at once other i forget whether i have taken them or not :O
Arava is fine as it's in a non click bottle , but i also have to open , pregabalin , lansaprazole, amitryptilene and whatever pain killers i decide to add.
All of them present me with problems . They are also all different sizes and shapes and difficulties.

I'd be happy to pay for a tool that did that for me :) . If a good one already exists then please advise :)
Rich

Something to help me remove a fleece or unlined cardigan and get it over the shoulders, maybe something that could hook around the bottom stairpost that clipped onto the ends of the sleeves or maybe the top near the neckline that I could then just walk away from and hey presto the garment would be removed, I seem to be able to get things on but not off.
Sheila

I find opening flick back tops on handcreams and tubes hard Kathleen Mc.

Packets as well - the sort you have to pull apart, like bags of sugar;cereal packets etc.

Oooh, isn`t it frustrating!! I just want hands that work properly. And feet. And shoulders. And.......................................

Kathleen x

In the kitchen:

Knives - difficult to chop things without pushing fingers sideways/fingers bending back the wrong way (yuk)
Lifting pans. Lifting anything out of the oven.

Have new 'oxo' grip peeler which is v good.

I do really need to invest in some of the existing helpful aids, like chopping board with spikes, the knives with special handles, drainers for lifting stuff out of pans etc but price is an issue and I keep putting off buying them.

Food packets: Same as everyone with the milk, shower gel and shampoo. Could make most 'peel-back' polythene packages better by making the tabs that you pull bigger and more 'gripable'.

Plugs are difficult but can buy aids quite reasonable price.

Day splints not to bad but 'resting splints' i need to wear at night to support my fingers as well as wrists are too hard/inflexible and extremely scratchy. I can't move around in bed or I scratch myself with them.

Hoovering is a nightmare.

Holding the phone is painful.

Sorry these are a bit random Good luck with the project and thanks for asking us to contribute.

Julie