Technology and Disability 18 (2006) 45–55 45 IOS Press Evaluation of bath grab bar placement for older adults Heidi Sveistrup a,b,* , Donna Lockett b , Nancy Edwards b,c and Faranak Aminzadeh b,d a School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada b Community Health Research Unit, Ottawa, ON, Canada c School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada d Regional Geriatric Assessment Program of Ottawa-Carleton, Ottawa, ON, Canada Abstract. The patterns of use, perceived usefulness and perceived safety of ﬁve different conﬁgurations of bathtub grab bars were evaluated by 103 community-living seniors in Canada. Current bathing activities, fall history, sociodemographic characteristics, balance measures as well as details about the home bathing environment were recorded. Participants were then videotaped as they got into, sat down, got up and exited a bath tub using each of the ﬁve conﬁgurations. The videotapes were used to determine the pattern of grab bar use for each conﬁguration and participants ranked each conﬁguration for perceived function and safety. The ﬁve conﬁgurations corresponded to standards published by the Canadian Standards Association, the US Uniform Accessibility Standards, a modiﬁcation of the Ontario Building code (OBC, a Canadian provincial code), a “common conﬁguration” and a composite conﬁguration. Although most respondents did not have bathtub grab bars installed in their home, those with home bars reported that they used the bars on a regular basis. Signiﬁcant differences in mean ratings of safety, comfort, ease of use, helpfulness, likelihood of use, and total composite score were detected between conﬁgurations with the modiﬁed OBC conﬁguration consistently ranked least favourable. There were no statistically signiﬁcant relationships between the respondents’ proﬁles, their preferred conﬁgurations or their patterns of bar use. A series of recommendations and suggestions for future research are made. Keywords: Aging, assistive devices, bathing 1. Introduction International studies have documented that approxi- mately one-third of community-living older adults re- port at least one fall each year [13,26]. Self reports in- dicate that 25% to 77% of falls occur inside the home, with bathrooms being one of the most common loca- tions [17,22]. A recent study reported that 55% of bath- room falls reported by a sample of 550 community- living older adults in Canada occurred while bathing, with 70% of these falls occurring during unsuccessful * Address for correspondence: Heidi Sveistrup, School of Reha- bilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ot- tawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5. Tel.: +1 613 562 5800 (8016); Fax: +1 613 562 5428; E-mail: Heidi. Sveistrup@uottawa.ca. transfers [2]. Moreover, almost one-third of the study participants were restricted in their bathing practices because they had difﬁculty with bath transfers includ- ing getting into or out of the tub and sitting into or getting up from the bottom of the tub. Bathroom aids, including bath grab bars, can com- pensate for the effects of age-related functional limita- tions such as impaired balance, poor coordination, lim- ited range of motion, and reduced muscular strength, allowing for safe and independent bathing among el- derly persons [4,31]. Bathroom aids are among the as- sistive devices most commonly owned by community living seniors [11,12,24,28,30,33]. In a randomized controlled trial of over 1500 Canadian older adults, the installation of grab bars and use of raised toilet seats were the most frequently reported home safety modiﬁ- cations made by the participants in the year preceding ISSN 1055-4181/06/$17.00  2006 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved