Torque Required from Elderly Females to Operate Faucet Handles of Various Shapes

Contemporary housing design for the elderly features faucet handles of various shapes in the kitchen and bath. Often the elderly users cannot properly grip the faucet handle, whose shape does not allow for sufficient torque to be developed to shut off the water flow. Twenty-three elderly females turned seven different faucet handles in the clockwise and counterclockwise direction, exerting comfortable levels of torque. The only handle that consistently allowed a torque force to be developed superior to that needed to operate working installed water faucets was a medical-type “paddle.” A comparison of the torque needed to terminate water flow in actual water faucets with the torque developed by the standing and seated subjects showed that the nonpaddle handles did not allow subjects to generate sufficient torque to terminate the water flow. The blunt edges of the nonpaddle handles caused substantial hand pain.