Survey on the Dimension of the Bathroom Equipment for the Korean Elderly

In the design guideline about the existing elderly housing, the equipment related to bathroom are the most important in the secure and functional aspect. On the other hand, the present elderly housing is being designed according to foreign design guideline or common housing form instead of reflecting living and physical qualities of the Korean elderly. Therefore, in this study based on the guideline of the existing literature, we made Mockup furnished with the equipments of bathroom and conducted an experiment in finding proper position and height for Korean elderly enough to use the bathroom conveniently and independently. The equipments of bathroom consist of different height wash bowls, toilet stools, grab bars, and a bathtub. As a result, suitable height of wash bowl is 760 mm $\pm{\alpha}$. We can realized that elderly feel comfortable to grab perpendicular bars of toilet stools more than horizontal ones. So it is necessary for elderly to grip perpendicular of grab bars added to prevention slipping and made shape easy to hold. Most of elderly told us that 500 mm of the bathtub setting is suitable. But many other people feel high. So height of the bathtub must be established lower than 500 mm for safety in the bathroom and for convenience.

한국 노인에게 적정한 욕실설비 치수에 대한 실험 조사