JP 3315993 B2 discloses a pant-type diaper comprising a liquid-pervious inner sheet, a liquid-impervious outer sheet and an absorbent structure sandwiched between these sheets. The diaper includes a front waist region adapted to lie on the wearer's ventral side and a rear waist region adapted to lie on the wearer's dorsal side. Transversely opposite side edges of the front waist region are joined to the associated side edges of the rear waist region so as to define a waist-opening and a pair of leg-openings. This diaper includes waist elastic members attached along a periphery of the waist-opening, and a waist-cuff extending, on the side of the diaper facing the wearer's skin, from the waist-opening toward the crotch region.
In this diaper, the waist-cuff is provided with an elastic member so that the waist-cuff may be put in close contact upon contraction of the elastic member so as to define a pocket between this waist-cuff and the diaper chassis and thereby to prevent body waste from leaking beyond the waist-opening.
In this diaper, the waist-cuff is left free from the diaper chassis except along the periphery of the waist-opening and at the transversely opposite ends of the front and rear waist regions. As a consequence, the pocket is apt to be deformed or even to be collapsed as the wearer's body moves, causing the body waste having been captured by the pocket to leak out from the diaper.
JP 4215370 B2 discloses a further diaper in which the waist-cuff is fixed to the diaper chassis in the vicinity of transversely opposite side edges of an absorbent structure. In this diaper, therefore, the shape retention of the pocket is correspondingly improved so that the pocket is not easily collapsed.
JP 4215370 B2 further discloses a diaper provided with leg cuffs formed along the transversely opposite side edges of the absorbent structure.
When the absorbent structure absorbs or receives body waste, the absorbent structure is drawn downward under a weight of body waste absorbed or received by the absorbent structure. Therefore, the waist-cuff might be drawn apart from the wearer's skin under a weight of body waste absorbed or received by the absorbent structure when the waist-cuff is fixed to the chassis in the vicinity of the absorbent structure.
When the diaper has a pair of leg-cuffs, the waist-cuff might partially overlap the leg-cuffs. In such diaper, if the waist-cuff is fixed in the vicinity of the side edges of the absorbent structure, the leg-cuffs may be collapsed to cause a leaking of body waste. Alternatively, the waist-cuffs might not overlap the leg-cuffs. In such diaper, there might be regions without both leg-cuffs and waist-cuff where leakage of body waste might occur.