Product Design Student Requests Help In Final Year Project

Hello All,

My name is Camilla Whitehead and i'm a final year Product Design student at The University Of The West of England Bristol. For my final project I have chosen to look at the problems faced by people with osteoporosis, specifically regarding the huge numbers of those who break their hips to see if I could design a product which could prevent falling or reduce impact on the hip.

4 years ago, my Granny fell and broke her hip, she spent the rest of her life in hospital as a result of her injury. From my research so far, I have learnt that 1,150 people die every month as a result of a hip fracture, so in my opinion a product needs to be produced to try and decrease these huge numbers.

I have started doing research into products on the market and have only found 'hip protectors' which are built into underwear. I was wondering if anyone could help me with some more in depth research letting me know how sufferers of osteoporosis try and prevent falling, and if there are any other products on the market which you use. If you would like to contact me by email my address is camilla.whitehead@yahoo.co.uk

Any help with this project would be fantastic.

Many thanks

Camilla Whitehead