Effect of Space on Health and Well-Being: An Environmental Assessment for Home-like Long Term Care Settings
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Date
2009-01-03
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Abstract
Small scale and home-like long term care environments were generally associated with increased activity and positive outcomes. This study aims to test the hypothesis that plan types with different spatial configurations lead to differences in the use of spaces and the social interaction between residents that may affect well-being. The context of the study is 12-bed adult care homes with cognitively intact residents. Nine cases from four different sites, which contained 80 residents in total, were selected to be studied. Caregivers were asked to complete a survey for each resident to report about each resident?s background, competence in activities and instrumental activities of daily living, participation in social events, mood, and use of the outdoors. The corresponding distances between each resident?s bedroom and the common spaces and syntax variables (depth, local, and global integration) were also considered. Behavior maps (n=308) were collected during observations in order to have three days of observation from each studied case. The use of spaces and conversations between residents were noted as an indicator of the residents? activeness and social interaction. The hypothesis that there were at least two plan types with significantly different outcomes (survey outcomes, use, and social interaction) was accepted at p < 0.05 level. Shorter walking distances were found to be an indicator of an increase in the number of conversation groups formed only by residents. The numbers of spaces that resident needed to walk through to reach any of the common areas were also found to be a factor for social interaction. The distance was not found to be a factor for use in the studied context. The isolation of bedrooms from the surrounding spaces was found to be necessary to provide privacy for residents. The results were independent from the bedroom sharing status of residents, which was shown to be a factor of use in at larger scales. Depression levels of residents were found to be independent from the considered spatial variables.
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health, group homes for elderly, well-being, design for elderly, Long-term care
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Degree
PhD
Discipline
Design
