Bathing is vital to our wellbeing. The fundamental purpose of bathing is to maintain health and physical well being of the body. While most young, able-bodied people do not think twice about taking a bath, bathing is more difficult, more time consuming and more hazardous for older people, especially for older people with disabilities. Most of the data available to me is nearly twenty years old, and in need of updating to take into account the rapidly aging Baby Boomer generation, that will most certainly increase numbers. However, my personal interviews with hundreds of seniors over the past year indicate that the issues are still the same, even though potentially greater in severity.
In the 1980s, the Gallup organization surveyed 1,500 non-institutionalized people over the age of 55. “Using the shower or tub” was one of the major problem areas identified by them for maintaining activities of daily living. The magnitude of problems older people experience while bathing and the seriousness of their situations, raise many important questions. Why do they continue to bathe? How difficult is it for older people to bathe? How safe is bathing for older persons with disabilities? Why do older people bathe in unsafe conditions?
Physiologically, bathing allows cleansing of the skin and removal of accumulated foreign matter. Bathing displaces dead skin, prevents irritations and rashes that would otherwise transform into infections, and washes away waste materials that can interfere with the normal functioning of the skin. Bathing allows people to: 1) maintain acceptable social standards of cleanliness, both appearance and olfactory and 2) refresh, revive, and relax through the washing process.
Bathing, like all forms of body cleansing activities, is habitual and ritualistic. It is laden with social, psychological and philosophical overtones. Philosophically, bathing is equated with cleanliness of body and purity of soul, and it reflects aptly in the popular phrase, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” People’s obsession to maintain a clean body is well known. Americans take, on average, at least seven baths a week. Since the 1960s, the rising sale of deodorants, anti-perspirants, and mouth washes supports the social emphasis for maintaining a clean body, and it reflects the cultural and aesthetic spirit of the society (Kira, 1966).
