Abstract
At present, there is a dramatic increase of elderly in Thailand. There is an awareness and there are a number of studies of the significance of the effect of environment on elderly, especially in United State and Europe. However, there is a little knowledge about the design of health care environment for Thai elderly. Moreover, since there is a difference of physical characteristics and psychology between people from United State and Europe, the design recommendation from the studies in these areas seem to not apply to Thai elderly. This is especially there is a little knowledge about the design of environment for Thai elderly in terms of lighting, colour, material and view-out and their effects on visibility and health recovery.
The main objective of this study is to develop interior environment suitable for the visibility and recovery of Thai elderly. There were two types of hospital to be surveyed,, which are 1) provincial hospital and 2) community hospital. There were two main parts in the study. The first part deals with the effect of interior environment of ward on visibility of Thai elderly. The second part related to the effect of interior environment of ward on recovery of Thai elderly. The results showed the significant effects of factors relating t interior environment of ward. The study also proposed an approach for design guideline of ward suitable for visibility and recovery for Thai elderly in provincial hospital and community hospital.
