What Promotes and What Limits Physical Activity in Assisted Living Facilities? A Study of the Physical Environment’s Design and Significance

Abstract

The design of assisted living facilities is an issue that has engaged architects and contractors since they began building the first residential homes. Previous research has shown that participation in everyday activities promotes wellbeing in older people. Many assisted living facilities have locked units that limit the individual’s ability to move freely. Our interest is directed towards older people’s opportunities to be physically active in assisted living facilities and how the physical environment affects these opportunities. The aim of this study was to increase the understanding of the importance of the physical environment to enable physical activities in assisted living facilities. The empirical material consists of observations and semi-structured interviews with thirteen residents and seventeen staff in four assisted living facilities in Sweden. The results show how the physical environment influences the opportunities for physical activity. Certain factors in the physical environment can be both promoting and limiting. An unsuitable environment limits the ability of older people to be physically active.

Keywords:

• Physical environment
• physical activity
• eldercare
• ethnography

Notes

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to research authorship and/or publication in this article.

Notes

1 Ellen Key was a Swedish feminist and writer on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics and education and was an important figure in the (Lewis, 1989).

2 Assisted living facilities (in Swedish: särskilt boende) is a term used in Swedish law texts (SFS, 2001, p. 453).