A Study on the Design of Hospital Gowns for Child Patients in Korea

This study investigated the usage of child hospital gowns to suggest a gown design suitable for child inpatients in Korea. The satisfaction on size suitability and design of child hospital gowns was surveyed among 219 child inpatients in 20 general hospitals. The most hospitals provided 2 to 4 different size pajamas for child inpatients. However, 53% of the subjects chose not to wear the uniform pants that the hospital provided and 28% did not wear the shirts. The reasons most often given for rejecting to wear the uniforms were unsuitable size (42.1%) and difficulty in taking on and off (26.2%). The dissatisfactory parts of hospital gowns were pants length (27.9%), sleeve length (19.6%), pants waist closure (16.9%), and neckline opening (11.9%). The preference in gown design for child inpatients varied by age (p〈0.5) and the styles that they had worn (p〈0.5). Significant differences for style preference were found in the opening of shirts or pants, pants waist closure type, and pants length. These results suggest that the hospital gowns for child inpatients need to reflect the wide diversity in their body size and preference in style.