This study was designed to gain more insight into the combination of the indoor environmental parameters in nursing homes and the influence on the quality of life of older people.
Frail older people suffering from a psychogeriatric disorder often need institutional care and therefore live in nursing homes. In nursing homes, they spend most of their time indoors. Additionally, older people have an altered sensitivity to indoor environmental (IE) parameters (light, acoustics and indoor air quality (IAQ)). The aim of this field study is to describe the current IE parameters and to examine how to enhance the IE climate in the nursing home in perspective of residents’ quality of life and well-being of the healthcare professionals. To describe the room acoustics the following parameters were used: background noise level, reverberation time and the speech transmission index. Light measurements, including horizontal and vertical illuminance at relevant positions and viewing directions, were performed to describe the light conditions in the common living rooms. IAQ was measured indicated by CO2 and by recording analysis of notifiable infections outbreaks. The results of the measurements were used as guideline for the redesign of a common living room in the participated nursing home.
Researcher
Helianthe Kort
Relevant literature and references
Creating Reciprocal Value Propositions – The case of the improvement of the quality of life of dementia patients and their caregivers – Elke den Ouden
Paper presented at the 4th World Conference on Design Research, Delft, October/November 2011.
E.R.C.M. HUISMAN, H.S.M. KORT. The effect of the indoor environment on the quality of life of older people. Gerontechnology 2016;15(suppl):84s; doi:10.4017/gt.2016.15.s.724.00
N.H.A.M. van Hout, C.C.J.M. Hak, S. Seuren, H.S.M. Kort. Acoustic measurements of sound levels in common rooms and sleeping rooms of care facilities for older adults. Gerontechnology 2014; 13(2):86-87 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4017/gt.2014.13.02.156.00
Huisman E.R.C.M., Aarts M.P.J., Van Kemenade P.L.W., Kort H.S.M. Quality of light in a long term facility in the Netherlands. Gerontechnology 2014;13(2):85-86 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4017/gt.2014.13.02.180.00
Kulve, M., Loomans, M.G.L.M., Huisman E.R.C.M., Kort H.S.M., Indoor Air in Long Term Care Facilities and Spread of Infectious Diseases. Conference Paper 2014. Indoor Air, the 13th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, 7-12 July 2014 Hong Kong
Aarts M.P.J., Huisman E.R.C.M., Mattheus B, Kort H.S.M., ‘Studying health effects of light on elderly people with dementia, methodology considerations’. Poster presentatie, Society of Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, 27-29 juni 2014, Wenen.