Development and Feasibility Testing of PrivyPod - a modular bathroom to support aging in place

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This project will finalize the design and demonstrate the feasibility of PrivyPod, which is an innovative prefabricated and modular bathroom designed to support older adults who are at a high risk of falling and/or who use an assistive device such as a wheelchair for their indoor mobility. PrivyPod addresses the critical challenge of providing an accessible and safe bathroom to the >40 million Americans who want to age in place but lack access to a full bathroom on the floor of the home which they live. Lack of bathroom access is one of the most common reasons older adults must move into expensive and less preferable nursing homes and assisted living facilities. This project is directly relevant to NIA’s mission to support aging “in place of choice” as well as special areas of interest related to “assistive technology, devices, and mobile applications for older adults and caregivers.” The few accessible bathroom solutions available are costly and have significant shortcomings. For instance, renovation of existing bathrooms is expensive (>$20,000 in some cases) and require the added cost of a stairlift if the only full bath is on the 2nd floor, which is common in the older housing stock in the US. When stairlifts are inappropriate, such as for full-time wheelchair users and others with significant mobility impairments, a bedside commode and portable shower are used, which lack privacy and undermine dignity. PrivyPod takes advantage of modular and prefabricated building practices that will lead to a flexibly designed, high-quality, and low-cost bathroom system that can be installed in a single day. Design requirements, a conceptual model, and a looks-like prototype were developed by an interprofessional team of contractors, engineers, industrial designers, and therapists. This project will advance the PrivyPod design and demonstrate its feasibility through two specific aims. The first aim will use an iterative approach to finalize the PrivyPod design and prototype according to building codes, accessibility standards, and stakeholder-guided preferences. The second aim will demonstrate the feasibility of PrivyPod through expert and stakeholder evaluation that will provide guidance for future design improvement, which will be implemented in a phase 2 proposal.