Environmental Design That Supports Healthy Aging: Evaluating a New Supportive Living Facility

ABSTRACT

The environments in which people live contribute to their health. This evaluation of a new seniors assisted living facility studied the role of the built environment on healthy aging. An environmental design survey was used to examine resident satisfaction and place attachment as a way to increase awareness of person-environment fit. Surveyed residents reported high levels of satisfaction with the built environment, and satisfaction scores were positively correlated with measures of place attachment. The results of this evaluation increases our understanding of how the built environment impacts seniors in residential living facilities, and the value of measures examining person-environment fit.

KEYWORDS:

• person-environment
• health aging
• place attachment
• post occupancy
• evaluation
• environmental design
• design for aging

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Bethany Care Society, residents of Collegeside Gardens, Dr. Gregory Wells, Valerie Trotter, Darlene Grasdal, Rhonda Gardiner, and Marlene Capton for supporting and contributing to this study.

Funding

The authors acknowledge the Alberta Addiction and Mental Health Research Partnership Program, Alberta Health Services, for their generous funding of this study.