Design recommendations for clothing problems of dialysis patients

The current purpose of dressing, which is accepted as one of the basic needs, has become a phenomenon that includes many meanings such as personal satisfaction, cultural reflection, social-status, adapting to fashion, being different, beyond protecting the body. In addition to revealing the identity of the people, clothing is an area where studies are needed for the needs of the users for individuals with different needs with its design. Chronic hemodialysis patients are also faced with the continuation of this treatment process until kidney transplantation. Based on this reality and needs, the aim of this research is to develop clothing design suggestions to provide solutions to the problems experienced by patients undergoing hemodialysis, who need clothing for user needs, with permanent vascular access during this procedure, to develop functional, ergonomic and to create user-oriented clothing designs with aesthetic model features. The explanatory mixed method was used to achieve the objectives determined in the research. While performing the two-stage explanatory method; the first method was the general survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. While performing the two-stage explanatory method; the first method was the general survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. In the first stage, a pilot survey was applied to 30 people. The Cronbach Alpha obtained as a result of this pilot study was examined. After the validity and reliability were determined, a questionnaire was applied to 96 individuals receiving hemodialysis treatment. As a result of the analysis, design critiques were created. In the second method of the research, by using the findings obtained with the scanning model, the action research part of the qualitative research methods was used. Functional, ergonomic and user-oriented clothing design suggestions have been developed in order to eliminate the problems in the created critiques. A total of 8 design proposals were prepared, of which 4 for women, 3 for men, and 1 for both male and female (unisex) patients. As a result of the survey, it was determined that they were not satisfied with the cuffs, collars, arm widths and auxiliary materials the most, and they wanted the areas of the garment to be openable and closed. It has been observed that there are findings that the current clothes cannot respond to this change in case the vascular access is changed as a result of different reasons during the treatment process, and there are problems related to privacy during the treatment, especially in the vascular access opened in the neck and groin. Considering these problems, design proposals have been developed. One of the important findings of this study is that the researcher did not take care of the clothes and did not consider the problems they experienced with the clothes due to the psychological conditions and physical limitations of the hemodialysis patients during the survey application process.