Bathroom Falls and Aging in Place in Canada: What the Research Shows

Falls among older Canadians

The Public Health Agency of Canada reports that falls are the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations and injury deaths among people aged 65 and older. In fiscal year 2023/24 there were 81,599 fall-related hospital stays among adults 65 and over, a count that excludes Quebec because its hospital data are not part of the national database used. That count is about 53% higher than in 2010/11.

Hospital stays are only part of the picture. The same analysis counted 212,570 fall-related emergency department visits among older adults in Ontario and Alberta alone, the two provinces with complete emergency data.

Where falls happen

Home is where many of these injuries begin. In the Public Health Agency of Canada's 2022 surveillance report, about 52% of fall-related hospitalizations of people 65 and older happened in a household residence, and another 17% in residential care (pooled data from 2015/16 to 2019/20, excluding Quebec). Because the place was not recorded for about 18% of stays, the true share at home is probably higher.

Canadian public data do not break these falls down by room, so there is no reliable national figure for falls in the bathroom or the tub. Housing guidance does single the bathtub out, though: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's 2021 guide to renovating bathrooms for accessibility describes bathtubs as one of the most common places in the home for falls.

What falls cost

Parachute, a national injury-prevention charity, estimated the cost of injury in Canada for 2018 in a report released in 2021 with support from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Falls were the most costly cause of injury at $10.3 billion, about 35% of the $29.4 billion total. That figure covers all ages and is a total economic cost: direct health-care spending plus indirect costs such as lost productivity. It is not a health-care budget figure, and the report calls its estimates conservative because they leave out pain and suffering.

For people aged 65 and older, Parachute lists falls at $5.6 billion. Its materials describe that amount in slightly different ways in different places, so it is best read as an order of magnitude rather than a precise health-system cost.

Why so many people plan to stay at home

In the National Institute on Ageing's 2024 survey of 5,875 Canadians aged 50 and older, conducted online with the Environics Institute in June and July 2024, 80% said they want to remain in their own home for as long as they can. Only 3% said they would prefer to move into a long-term care home eventually. The wish was stronger among homeowners (89%) than renters (64%).

Staying at home usually means adapting it: better lighting, handholds, fewer trip hazards and, often, an easier way in and out of the shower. Our guide to bathtub modifications for seniors covers the practical side of that planning.

What research says about changing the home

The most rigorous summary comes from a 2023 Cochrane systematic review of environmental interventions for older people living in the community. Programs that assess hazards in the home and then make adaptations or changes in behaviour probably reduce the rate of falls by about 26% overall (moderate-certainty evidence). For people at higher risk of falling, such as those who have already fallen, the reduction was about 38% and the evidence was rated high certainty. For people not selected because of their risk, no reduction was found. An earlier Cochrane review (2012) noted that home safety programs appear to work better when delivered by an occupational therapist.

These studies looked at whole-home assessment programs, not at any single product. They did not test bathtub cutouts, and nothing in them shows how many falls a particular modification prevents. What they do support is a sensible approach: if someone is at higher risk, a professional home assessment, followed by the changes it recommends, is worth doing.

For the tub specifically, CMHC's accessibility guidance describes cutting an opening into the side wall of an existing bathtub as an inexpensive way to make bathing safer for older people, and it also recommends a vertical grab bar beside the tub. A bathtub cutout is one way to lower that step; whether it suits a particular person and bathroom is a judgment for them, their family and, ideally, their health professional.

Renovation waste and keeping what already works

Renovation also has an environmental side. Statistics Canada estimated that about 4 million tonnes of construction, renovation and demolition waste was generated in Canada in 2010, a figure cited in the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment's 2019 guidance, which notes the true amount could be considerably higher. A 2015 study prepared for Environment Canada found that roughly 84% of that waste was disposed of, mostly in landfills. Renovation alone accounted for nearly half of it. More recent Statistics Canada data report 16.4 million tonnes of non-residential waste disposed in 2024, but that total combines construction waste with industrial, commercial and institutional waste, so it cannot be read as a construction-only number.

None of these figures is broken down for bathrooms or bathtubs, and they should not be read as bathroom waste. The practical point is simpler: a full tub-to-shower replacement removes the existing tub, and often surrounding materials, and sends it for disposal. A CleanCut modification leaves the tub in place and removes only the section of wall that is cut away. We don't put a number on the difference, because it depends on the bathroom and the job. Our comparison of cutouts, walk-in tubs and shower replacement covers the other trade-offs.

Sources

1. Public Health Agency of Canada (2024). Temporal trends and characteristics of fall-related deaths, hospitalizations and emergency department visits among older adults in Canada. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, Vol. 44, No. 11/12. canada.ca
2. Public Health Agency of Canada (2022). Surveillance report on falls among older adults in Canada. canada.ca
3. Parachute (2021). Potential Lost, Potential for Change: The Cost of Injury in Canada (2018 data). parachute.ca
4. National Institute on Ageing and Environics Institute (2024). Perspectives on Growing Older in Canada: The 2024 NIA Ageing in Canada Survey. environicsinstitute.org
5. Clemson L, et al. (2023). Environmental interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD013258. cochrane.org
6. Gillespie LD, et al. (2012). Interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD007146. cochrane.org
7. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (2021). Renovating for Accessibility: Bathrooms. cmhc-schl.gc.ca
8. Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (2019). Guide for Identifying, Evaluating and Selecting Policies for Influencing Construction, Renovation and Demolition Waste Management (citing Statistics Canada, 2013). ccme.ca
9. Statistics Canada. Table 38-10-0032-01, Disposal of waste, by source (2024 data). statcan.gc.ca

Figures were checked against these sources in November 2026. Imperial Bathrooms is not affiliated with any of these organizations, and none of them endorses CleanCut products.

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