Happy Living in Darkness! Indoor Lighting in Relation to Activities of Daily Living, Visual and General Health in 75-Year-Olds Living at Home

ABSTRACT

Lighting has been identified as a significant environmental attribute for promoting vision and general health among older people, enabling successful aging at home, but it has received little attention in the literature. Indoor lighting levels, self-reported vision and general health, and activities of daily life were measured in 114 healthy 75-year-old Norwegians. Despite very low levels of indoor lighting, the subjects were happy and healthy. There is a large discrepancy between self-assessed health and recommended lighting levels, and low awareness of the effect of lighting on age-related vision loss or daily living in the future. Knowledge of how to utilize indoor lighting to ensure healthy and safe aging in the home is needed.

KEYWORDS:

• indoor lighting
• home environment
• healthy aging
• vision
• health promotion

Acknowledgments

Study design: GE, HKF and GH contributed to the study design, data analyses and manuscript preparation. TMK assisted the statistics. Data collection: GE, members of the health promotion nursing team in Drammen municipality.

The authors especially want to acknowledge lighting designers Benedikte Nilsen Rauan, MultiConsult Oslo, Thomas Hummel ECT AS Drammen, Mari Sando ECT AS Drammen, Associate Professor Ösp Egilsdottir RN, HBV, and members of the health-promotion nursing team in the municipality of Drammen, Norway, for support and assistance in carrying out the project.

Funding

This study is funded by the Norwegian State Housing Bank, MultiConsult Oslo Norway and ECT AS, Drammen Norway.