Environmental sensory cues and their impact on falls within assisted living facilities.

详细信息   

• 作者：Wood-Nartker ; Jeanneane.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2012
• 毕业院校：University of Minnesota
• Department：Design.
• ISBN：9781267435521
• CBH：3513384
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：3885598
• Pages：197

文摘

The data clearly show that U.S. older adults have increasing longevity,are better off economically as a whole than at any time in history,and are living healthier longer. However,as the old get older,the number of physical limitations also increases,largely due to age-related physical and sensory decline,which can increase the fear and risk of falling. An increased risk of falling is important because a result of declining physical health is unintentional injury,which is one of the top ten leading causes of death for men and women over age 65. Therefore,in older adults,who may have difficulty recovering from a fall,the ability to prevent falls becomes essential Willis,2000). Sensory deterioration can impact peoples functional ability,mobility,and balance,which can also impact or prevent the ability of older adults to live independently. Therefore,some older adults are researching alternative living arrangements,including residential care facilities where they can "age in place" after making the decision to move from their homes. This study specifically targeted Assisted Living Facilities ALF). To that end,the two-fold purpose of this exploratory study was to 1) develop,test and evaluate the validity of a checklist instrument developed specifically for this study as a design and research tool for the interior design and architectural community to systematically evaluate environmental risk factors and sensory cues within AFLs and 2) to determine whether there was a relationship between the number of environmental sensory cues within ALFs and the number of falls by older adults who reside in ALFs using Lawtons 1999) environmental press theory as a framework. Support was shown for the validity of the measurement tool. Testing did not show support for the overall hypothesis. However,analysis did show that the larger the ALF,the more mean number of cues were included in the overall environment,which was shown to be significant within a subset of some rooms within diverse facility sizes as well. Recognition of the need to continue to control for facility size and a subset of rooms when testing environmental sensory cues to falls in the hypothesis became clear. Implications of these findings to design practice,research and teaching are presented.