Individual product features are "chicken ribs". According to the evaluation by the China Consumers Association, the more expensive the better. Elderly care accessories such as transfer machines and electric wheelchairs have become popular. | Elderly care | Products
In recent years, elderly care aids that can accurately meet the nursing needs of the elderly and improve their quality of life in their later years have gradually become popular. However, China's elderly care accessory industry is still in its early stages, with a relatively limited variety and quantity of products, severe homogenization competition, and imperfect standards, technologies, and mandatory testing regulations, resulting in negative voices such as poor quality, high premiums, and functional shortcomings.
In response to these phenomena, the China Consumers Association has recently commissioned the China Household Electrical Appliance Research Institute to jointly carry out quality evaluation and consumption supervision projects for elderly care assistive devices and aging friendly products.
According to the China Consumers Association, the quality evaluation and consumption supervision project for elderly care assistive devices and aging friendly products mainly targets 9 categories of elderly care assistive devices with strong promotion in the market, namely: displacement machines, electric wheelchairs, climbing machines, assistive driving machines, toilet and upright assistive devices, mobile toilets, toilet armrests, shower chairs, flippers, etc. The project randomly selected 50 products according to different price ranges for evaluation, and compiled a "Product Selection Key Points" for consumers with relevant purchasing needs.
Screenshot of the report from the China Consumers Association.
The actual evaluation conclusion and the experience of elderly consumers also indicate that the following issues should be paid attention to when selecting and producing elderly care assistive devices and aging friendly products:
Elderly care aids are not necessarily the more expensive the better
The China Consumers Association stated that consumers should not blindly pursue "the more expensive the better" for elderly care accessories, and the product's functional points are not "the more the better". Moreover, they should not blindly believe that imported or purchased products are the only choice.
The actual test results of the products show that some low-priced products have a higher level of aging resistance in terms of detailed design and functional settings compared to expensive products.
Individual product features "chicken ribs"
The China Consumers Association stated that in order to increase the price of some elderly care accessories, they will add some "fancy" chicken rib functions that the elderly cannot use, and these function buttons will also appear in the main control area. The complex interface design not only affects the normal operation of the product, but also causes safety hazards in use.
Some products have poor practicality, which can easily lead to significant physiological discomfort among elderly consumers; Some products require more usage space due to their large size, and thickened feet also have high requirements for the hardness of home or furniture, making them unsuitable for small household sizes.
In addition, there are also some products with strong substitutability, which can be completed with simple auxiliary tools or human assistance.
Incomplete user instructions and incomplete safety warnings
The China Consumers Association mentioned that some products do not come with corresponding user manuals due to their simple design, and consumers need to "understand" the usage methods through the product details page of shopping websites.
In addition, some products do not indicate or emphasize usage taboos and the physical condition of the target audience in the user manual. If consumers operate incorrectly, it is easy to cause secondary damage to the body of the elderly.
Price chaos and lack of product guarantee
The China Consumers Association pointed out that the practicality and price of elderly care accessories cannot be equated. Many products of elderly care accessories have prices that do not match the quality, with incorrect products, inflated prices, and chaotic prices everywhere. Some ordinary plastic products can be sold for hundreds or even thousands of yuan, or the same product has huge price differences on different shopping platforms. In this regard, the protection of consumers' right to information, choice, and fair trading rights urgently needs to be strengthened.
For example, in the process of randomly selecting and purchasing evaluation prototypes, a shower chair priced at 5878.6 yuan was purchased from a certain e-commerce platform "Jiumeng Home Decoration Building Materials Specialty Store", but the actual product received was a regular product with a quality of only 100 yuan.
