Physical environment of residential aged care facilities in northeast China

The increasing number of "empty nest elderly" has attracted much attention to the living environment of care facilities for, the elderly. For this reason, this research mainly studies and analyzes the living environments of elderly care facilities in China. With the increasing number of China’s aging and self care elderly people, the demand of residential aged care facilities (RACFs) is also growing in this country. This study compares elderly care facilities in China and UK, with focus on the merits of some RACFs in the United Kingdom. In addition, this study also selected 305 elderly people in a city, and summarized the elements that encouragement the elderly residents’ quality of life (QoL). Through the method of hierarchical coding associated with grounded theory, the relevant factors of the elderly resident’s QoL and the living environment are summarized. Yet, the RACFs are in short supply in China, and attention to this situation is insufficient. There are also problems regarding resource allocation. The system of elderly care facilities in UK is more rational organized with better caring facilities, which provides lessons for China. Drawing on the experience of the UK’s provision of aged care facilities helps to explore and develop facilities that meet the needs of China’s elderly care. Three main elements that have influence on the elderly’s QoL are: “What do they need; Why do they needed; and What choices are available for them” which can be approached through grounded theoretical research and analysis. The three factors play an central part in the QoL of the elderly and affect their choice behavior. In addition, the physical environment is one of the important influencing factors. The health of the elderly is poor, and any surrounding factors will affect the feeling of the elderly. Therefore, the elderly have higher requirements for RACFs. The physical environments of the RACFs were found to be highly correlated with the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) rating, which includes acoustic, lighting, and thermal environment, and indoor air quality (IAQ). The survey found that IEQ ratings are affected by seasonality, with rating of bedrooms higher than that of activity rooms. Among them, the satisfaction threshold related to sound is higher in summer than in winter, while the satisfaction threshold related to lighting is less affected by the season. The study of architectural composition, indoor building environment and residential satisfaction on the QoL of the elderly in the RACFs in the northeast China shows that IEQ and residential satisfaction RS as intermediary variables indirectly affect the effect of AC building component on QoL. Meanwhile, the influences of building types, seasonal distribution and RACFs scale on IEQ were analyzed in the 34 RACFs of northeast China. The results have shown that despite the reconstruction of RACFs and seasonal distribution, the satisfaction of the participants have changed, while the scale of RACFs has less influence on the satisfaction. Research into elderly residents’ rating of acoustic comfort in an activity hall in a residential aged care facility in Harbin, China, showed that the elderly had a low satisfaction with the acoustic environment of the activity hall. As the sound pressure level (SPL) raised, the elderly’s rating of their satisfaction with the acoustic environment declined. The elderly’s satisfaction and preference for music sounds were higher than other sound types, such as chatting or machine noises. The satisfaction towards music can also decline due to certain factors, but was slower than other sound types. Although the pension system has been established in China for a long time, improving the living environments of the elderly has not attracted attention, and the psychological factors of the elderly people are normally ignored due to the immature architectural understanding of the elderly. The devise of the living environment for the elderly people in China is not adequately sophisticated. The design of housing suitable for the elderly should attract social attention. In short, the investigation and analysis of this study have significance for the living environment of the elderly in China.