Hip protectors

Irrespective of someone’s health and physical ability, having a fall is the most common way of injuring oneself. For those who are older, more frail, heavier, or have poor balance, falling can be an almost regular occurrence and one way of reducing injuries, or the seriousness of injuries, is to wear hip protectors.

The hips are one of the most vulnerable parts of the body when subjected to impact and, particularly for the elderly, a broken hip can be a painful and difficult injury to recover from.

What are hip protectors

Hip protectors are specially designed pads that can fit into elasticised undergarments or special pants. They are positioned directly against the hips (the protruding hip bone) and are held in position by the undergarment.

An alternative to the pads is to have hip protector pants that have the pads already included in the design of the garment. These underpants have the protectors positioned in the correct location and they cannot move or slip.

Hip protectors act to cushion and protect the easily damaged hip area in the event of a fall by having a special design and material that absorbs impact. Wearing these protectors can reduce the likelihood or severity of a hip injury (e.g. a fracture) resulting from a fall or any kind of hip related impact.

Despite offering significant protection, these pads are hardly noticeable when worn under clothing and they can be inter-switched between garments and worn for continuous periods without any discomfort.

These fabric hip protectors are normally machine washable, they can be tumble dried, and they come in a selection of colours (e.g. white, skin tone etc). They are a very popular clothing aid, but because they are invisible they pass by unnoticed.