The Canadian Journal on Aging released a study in 2006 titled “Access to Grab Bars: Evidence of a Policy Gap”. In it, researchers focused on access to bathtub grab bars in privately and publicly owned apartment buildings. They found that grab bars are significantly more prevalent in publicly owned apartments (91.3%) as compared to privately owned (37.8%).
Surveys of residents revealed that seniors were more likely to have grab bars in their bathtubs if they were older, were in poor health, had fallen in the previous year or used a mobility aid. Among those who did not have grab bars, 33 per cent reported fear of falling while bathing, 20 per cent reported difficulty bathing and 23 per cent were found to have impaired balance.
We couldn’t find a free full version of the report, but here is a link to a service offering paid access.
