May 1, 2025
Designing an Aging-Ready Home
At Pitt’s Healthy Home Lab, a multidisciplinary team of faculty, students and community partners find ways to make "aging in place" possible.
Designs on Aging-Ready
By Strategic Communications
More than three-quarters of adults over the age of 50 want to age in place, yet according to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 10% of U.S. homes are “aging-ready.”
You can imagine how difficult it is for people determined to age in place in Pittsburgh—a land of hills, gorges, cobblestones and stairs—to remain independent and in their homes. And that makes the city a perfect test bed for interventions designed to make aging in place possible, some University of Pittsburgh researchers say.
At Pitt’s Healthy Home Lab (HHL) on Oakland Avenue, just steps from the Cathedral of Learning in the Oakland neighborhood, a more than 100-year-old former family home has taken on a new life. In this three-story brick house, faculty and students from the Schools of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS), Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, and the Swanson School of Engineering work together with community partners to make the average home much more accessible. They assess common conditions, evaluate and implement technology, and suggest interventions to optimize health and independence for older adults, as well as people of all ages with mobility issues.
“The Healthy Home Lab is both a concept and a place. It provides common ground and unites different communities of interest through a shared lens,” says Pamela Toto, director of the Healthy Home Lab and professor of occupational therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
“We hope that everything we do will eventually filter out to the whole community.”
“We just don’t get anything like this in the classroom. It was the first time that we had a role-playing experience where we were in the shoes of the patient.”
Svea Cheng
Search high and low
Researchers at HHL are developing high- and low-tech solutions that add stability where needed. The team explores alternatives that range from an ergonomic movable handle system that is positioned in front of a person to provide support while going up and down the stairs to an adaptable rail system that can be changed based on a person’s needs to help them move within and between rooms.
They are also creating assessments to monitor air quality in the home and exploring ways in which older adults can embrace smart technology to improve their safety and well-being.
“After testing our products and services in the Healthy Home Lab, we partner with organizations like the UPMC Health Plan, Allegheny County AAA and businesses in the AARP AgeTech Collaborative to deliver them to people in need,” says Everette James, director of Pitt’s Health Policy Institute.
Partners for fall reduction
In 2024, HHL received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its “Moving Beyond Home Modifications: Using Smart Home Technology to Support Safe Living for Older Adults” project. The grant is co-led by Steven Handler, associate professor of medicine, School of Medicine, and HHL medical director, and Yong Choi, assistant professor of health information management, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. The grant supports HHL experts as they work with partners from the Allegheny County Housing Authority and its three older adult public housing units in Homestead to create solutions.
Falls are the most common cause of injury for older adults, Handler says, but most public housing units won’t allow structural changes to install effective home modifications. Smart technology offers an alternative.
In their shoes
HHL is also an education hot spot. In July 2024, wearing safety goggles covered in Vaseline, Svea Cheng navigated a walker through a cramped kitchen, simulating the experience of an older patient with glaucoma recovering from surgery. Her tasks included making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, walking downstairs to feed the cat and going outside to water plants.
Cheng, a medical student in her Adult Outpatient Medicine Clerkship, was participating in a learning experience developed for health sciences students at HHL to help them better understand challenges facing patients as they return home. The case study was codeveloped with the Pitt Vaccination and Health Connection Hub; organizers began offering the experience in spring 2024.
“We just don’t get anything like this in the classroom. It was the first time that we had a role-playing experience where we were in the shoes of the patient,” Cheng said.