Abstract
A central requirement of designing pharmaceutical containers is designing for the elderly and those with poor manual dexterity (e.g., arthritis); however, in an effort to reduce the number of accidental poisonings in children each year it is vital to make pharmaceutical containers child resistant. This study entails an empirical examination of several commonly used child resistant containers (CRCs) across younger (≤35) and older adults (≥50). Results indicated that both younger and older adults could use the containers. However, results did differ on task completion times and rates of perceived exertion for bottle cap design, which was dependent upon both bottle size and CRC design. Design recommendations were made, to employ larger bottles with CRC designs that emphasize mental over physical dexterity (i.e., align-arrow cap design) and smaller more easily managed bottles with CRC designs that emphasize physical dexterity (i.e., push and twist cap design).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.