Bathing Disability in Elderly Focus of $1.2 Million NIA Grant

Yale researchers have received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to study bathing disability in elderly persons and ultimately to enhance safe and independent bathing among older persons.

Disability in bathing-the need for personal assistance to wash and dry one’s whole body-is highly prevalent in older persons and is a strong predictor of morbidity and mortality. It is also the primary indication that there is a need for home aide services. The long-term goal of this research is to find ways to prolong independence in bathing among the elderly. The immediate goal is to rigorously evaluate the epidemiology of bathing disability, including its burden and patterns, associations with subsequent adverse outcomes, and potentially modifiable personal and environmental risk factors.

“Bathing is considered an essential activity in most modern societies,” said principal investigator on the grant, Thomas M. Gill, M.D., associate professor of medicine/geriatrics at Yale School of Medicine. “As people age, the ability to bathe safely and independently is often challenged.”

A disproportionate number of injurious falls occur in bathrooms and past studies have cited the absence of safety devices such as grab bars. Other studies have shown that one in seven older persons with bathing difficulty had become stuck in bathtubs on at least one occasion. Also, satisfaction with bathing is often diminished among older persons.

Gill said that the series of studies planned will add to the scant evidence base to help guide the prevention and remediation of bathing disability.

Other researchers on the study include Theodore Holford, the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, and Heather Allore, associate director of the biostatistics core of the Yale Pepper Center/Program on Aging.