Geriatric bathroom design to minimize risk of falling for older adults–a systematic review

PurposeFalls among older adults are a growing concern in today's society, and poor design of the home environment is likely to have a detrimental effect on the risk of falling. The aim of the study is to identify bathroom design alternatives that affect the risk of falling for older adults.MethodsLiterature sources such as Medline, PubMed, CINAHL, Abstract in Social Gerontology, Google Scholar, The Cochrane Library are searched up to August 2014, and papers that meet inclusive criteria of participants 65 years and over, randomized controlled trial (RCT), quasi-experimental, and non-experimental descriptive studies are included. Nine papers are found to meet these inclusive criteria.ResultsMost studies are found to have been carried out in the USA, Canada, and Australia. Studies are classified based on the major design components of bathrooms: toilet, bathtub, lighting, and flooring.ConclusionsTo the authors’ knowledge this is the first systematic review on this topic. An inter-disciplinary framework for the concept of geriatric design is identified and implemented on the bathroom design. Results show the possibility of generating various evidence-based design scenarios that are associated with less risk of falling for older adults.