Funding for research exploring impact of home adaptations

The Centre for Ageing Better is funding research to follow-up on the findings of the pioneering ‘Bathing Adaptations in the Homes of Older Adults’ (BATH-OUT-1) study. Ageing Better's review into the role of home adaptations highlighted the positive and life-changing impact home adaptations can have, and demonstrated investment in adaptations is highly cost-effective. However, our research also identified that there is a lack of UK based evidence.

BATH-OUT-1 was funded by NIHR School for Social Care Research and saw people who struggled to use their bathrooms asked about the difficulties they were having, their experience of the adaptations process, and the impact that the adaptations had on their daily lives. The study showed that the removal of the physical barriers in the bathroom led to older adults having an improved sense of physical functioning. This impacted a range of areas and contributed to an increased sense of confidence and quality of life.

Through interviews with older people and carers, this research will explore the medium to long-term effects of home adaptations, focused on those which help people in later life to bathe safely and independently. This study will re-interview those who participated in the original BATH-OUT-1 study.  

This research will add much-needed medium- to long- term evidence on the impact adaptations can have on enabling people to live safely at home for longer.

The study will be led by Dr Phillip Whitehead, Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at Northumbria University in collaboration with Miriam Golding-Day Research Associate at University of Nottingham.

The results paper from BATH-OUT-1 is publicly available at: BMC Public Health.