Abstract
Recently, many elderly people have suffered accidents at home, and a frequent cause of deaths in the home has been drowning in the bath tub. Therefore, this study was performed to clarify the state of the bathroom environment in the houses of elderly people to prevent such accidents in bathrooms. The bathroom environments of elderly people's homes were measured, and were analyzed from the viewpoint of household composition, height and age. As a result of a survey of 195 elderly people, the following results were obtained. The bathrooms of households consisting of an elderly person alone more often failed to meet the recommended standards and were poorly equipped. Since complaints about the bathroom differed according to height, recommended standards that are applicable to a reasonable range of heights were shown to be needed. According to age, safety measures with regard to the bathroom layout and facilities were more often seen in the houses of people in late old age, living with their children's families. In the future, improvements in the bathroom size and equipment according to the age and height are required not only in the homes of an elderly person alone but also in all households.
