Identifying characteristics of design guidelines for elderly care environments from the holistic health perspective

The purpose of this paper is to identify features of space planning guidelines for elderly care environments from a holistic health perspective. This was undertaken with the expected outcome of promoting a better understanding of elderly care environment as a health resource. The major method used was a content analysis technique that employed physical, psychological, and social health criteria. Data for analysis were collected through care facility administrators using a checklist of 114 items related to spatial planning, developed through analyzing design guidelines from Japan, the UK, Germany, and the USA. As a supplementary method, a literature review was conducted on the current status of Korean healthcare facilities and recent trends in design theories for elderly care facilities. To measure results, a matrix was developed in which each guideline item was matched to each of the three health dimensions, thereby delineating the relationship between them. The elderly care environment is a vital resource to provide and support holistic health, and it is. Thus, important to understand how these factors relate to and utilize one another in order to increase their congruence. The resulting matrix is expected to function as a foundation for providing better planning services, which could develop further into "elderly care facility design guidelines for holistic health".