Journal of Community Mobilization and Sustainable Development

The bathroom is an important area to be considered while planning elderly housing as it is the place where elderly people might encounter falls and injuries. The study aimed at ergonomically designing an elderly bathroom that facilitates Age in place for elderly people. The objectives of the study were to study the needs of elderly in terms of bathroom features, to identify the gap between the existing bathroom features and the needs of the elderly people and to design a bathroom that enables the safety of elderly people. The ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Sixty elderly women aged 60 and above were taken as sample for the study from the selected localities of Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, India. Purposive sampling method was adopted to draw the sample. Standard design guidelines that enable the elderly people to use the bathroom equipment without any difficulty proposed by various researchers, Government and Non-government organizations served as a base for identifying the features to measure the existing bathroom design conditions in the houses. The results indicated that the bathrooms in existing elderly houses were found lacking in features like sufficient space for a wheelchair, grab bars, wall-hung sanitary fixtures that ensure safety and convenience in usage. The respondents were asked to state their recommendations and need to design a bathroom to enable them to use comfortably in old age. The respondents expressed to have a bathroom with ergonomically designed elderly-friendly fittings and fixtures that enable safety and hinders fall-related injuries in their old age. It was found that while designing houses due thought was not given to planning bathrooms to accommodate the needs that may arise in old age. Taking into consideration the housing needs and requirements of the elderly bathroom designs were developed keeping in view the ergonomic standards.