Affiliation:
1. Department of Health Services Research, Maastricht University,
Maastricht, Netherlands
Abstract
Abstract
Background The built environment is a key component of dementia-specific
care. Little is known about the characteristics of dementia-sensitive
environmental elements in living units of nursing homes in Germany. The German
Environmental Audit Tool (G-EAT) is a systematic assessment tool for describing
these elements in detail. Aim of the study: To describe the extent of
dementia-sensitive design principles and environmental elements in a regionally
limited sample of living units in Germany.
Methods The built environment was assessed using G-EAT and analysed
quantitatively and descriptively. Definitions of living units were developed
based on site visits and analysed using qualitative content analysis.
Results The 42 participating living units were heterogeneous in terms of
space and composition. Dementia-sensitive design principles varied greatly in
their implementation in the built environment; on average, 87.7% of the
environmental elements were oriented towards a familiar environment. In
contrast, visual accessibility was much less frequently enabled by the built
environment (mean 37.3%).
Conclusions The characteristics of various dementia-sensitive
environmental elements need to be further investigated against the background of
the nursing home care concept and the homogeneity of the resident group to
enable the initiation of tailored environmental adaptation that can be
implemented by interdisciplinary teams in nursing homes. This also requires a
follow-up study with a larger sample of living units to identify the factors
that promote and inhibit the development of a dementia-sensitive
environment.