| Title |
Analysis of Pedestrian Environments in Geriatric Long-term Care Hospitals That Support Loitering Behavior From a Therapeutic Environmental Design Perspective |
| Authors |
전수경(Chun, Soo-Kyung) ; 김수란(Kim, Soo-Ran) |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5659/JAIK.2022.38.5.3 |
| Keywords |
Geriatric long-term care hospital(GHs); Pedestrian Environment; Assessment; Therapeutic environment; Loitering behavior |
| Abstract |
The physical conditions of pedestrian environments play a significant role in promoting health maintenance and encouraging daily walking
activities. Previous studies of this generally focused on analyzing urban residential environments, dementia care units or general hospitals that
support loitering behavior; however, the conditions of pedestrian environments in geriatric long-term care hospitals (GHs) should be considered
differently from the aforementioned establishments. The purpose of this study is to evaluate pedestrian environments that support loitering
behavior from a therapeutic environmental design perspective. A literature review and expert interviews with interior designers, caregivers and
nurses were conducted to generate a checklist of pedestrian environment conditions in GHs; the checklist entailed five factors related to
safety, accessibility, territory, nature and aesthetics and services along with twenty-two sub-factors incorporating the therapeutic environment
perspective. Several design improvements were noted and in need of being reexamined and revamped to be more appropriate for elderly
patients and their circumstances; current laws did not properly consider this safety factor. There were poor conditions in the outdoor
pedestrian areas and the indoor pedestrian environments had numerous obstacles in place. Exhibiting a natural garden in the wards with
natural light and open spaces are necessary to encourage elderly patients to want to walk, but these pedestrian-friendly conditions weren’t
readily available in all hospitals. For future purposes, the comprised checklist of pedestrian environment conditions in GHs could be used as
evaluation criteria for certifying GHs and potentially a useful reference for policymakers to strengthen regulations in creating more suitable
recovery conditions for elderly patients. |