Study on the effect of sports bra on senior women exercise behavior based on the psychological and biomechanical analysis

Abstract

Due to the profound anatomical changes that occur in the female breast with increasing age, senior females experience a series of changes, such as deteriorated body functions, unattractive silhouette, and different psychological demands. Senior females appear to have a significantly different attitude to sports bras compared to younger females. However, the current sportswear industry and academic institutes underestimate the significance and prospect of age-specific sports bra development. Consequently, it can be found that the commercial sports bra cannot fulfill the special psychological and physical requirements of senior women. Senior females usually feel inappropriate and embarrassed when wearing a sports bra. Unsatisfied sports bras may be unaccepted to wear a sports bra during physical activities, even break their exercise habit. By exploring their psychological requirements and characterizing their breast deformation bio-mechanically, the proposed age-specific alternations or design features can be instructional for age-friendly sports bra optimization. The current thesis aimed to: 1. Provide a deeper understanding of the desired performance, design requirements, and design parameters from the viewpoint of senior females on a sports bra. 2. Characterize the breast deformation under different breast conditions by using different biomechanical testing methods. 3. Develop numerical models by various computer-aided design tools to make simulations and predictions. 4. Validate key bra performance variables of self-developed sports bra prototypes. To achieve the research aims, this thesis contained four studies. The first study (chapter 3) was an exploratory investigation of the senior women (aged from 45 to 65 years old with a cup size of 80C-95C) attitude on sports bra performance, evaluation variables, and exercise motivations. a wear trial study for senior women participants wearing eight kinds of commercial sports bras. By proposing some key problems and collecting their subjective comments, a holistic interrelationship among their attitude to a sports bra, perceived sports bra performance, aesthetic preferences can be explored. Then investigate the interrelationship interactions perform and how those parameters influence exercise motivation. The findings can provide insights into the selection of the most statistically influential design attribute effects on elderly women's perceptions. Besides the subjective analysis in Chapter 3, the breast biomechanical analysis also needs to be quantified. The second study was the assessment of breast 3D motions and surface skin deformations by empirical experiment. The collected breast motion data then can be used for motion analysis, numerical model construction, and accuracy validation. As a result of the second study stated, numerical modeling by computer-aided tools was applied, including the FEM, ANN, AGRA, and ELM. Global, faster, or robust simulations and predictions were carried out in the third study (chapter 5). All results from those three studies laid a foundation for the proposal of age-friendly sports bra design features. Then, self-developed sports bra prototypes were manufactured and tested in the fourth study (chapter 6). To evaluate the performance of self-developed sports bras by using the analytic hierarchy process method, it can be known whether the prototypes can meet the senior females' requirements on sports bras. Comments from various perspectives were given and summarized to finalize the final design features.