The appropriate bath seat, used with grab bars and a handheld showerhead, reduce the risk of falls and help frail adults conserve energy.

Before purchasing, measure the inside width of the bathtub floor to make sure the chair legs fit. The bath seat is most stable when the bottom of the chair's legs sit on the bottom of the tub, not on the angled sides of the bathtub walls. This bath chair, which is 14-1/2" wide at its base, easily fits into an older bathtub with a 16" wide floor.

The main types of bath seats are:

• stool or bench without a back
• chair with a back
• transfer bench