Objectives: Promoting unstructured outside play is a promising vehicle to increase children’s physical activity (PA). This study investigates if factors of the social environment moderate the relationship between the perceived physical environment and outside play. Study design: 1875 parents from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study reported on their child’s outside play around age five years, and 1516 parents around age seven years. Linear mixed model analyses were performed to evaluate (moderating) relationships among factors of the social environment (parenting influences and social capital), the perceived physical environment, and outside play at age five and seven. Season was entered as a random factor in these analyses. Results: Accessibility of PA facilities, positive parental attitude towards PA and social capital were associated with more outside play, while parental concern and restriction of screen time were related with less outside play. We found two significant interactions; both involving parent perceived responsibility towards child PA participation. Conclusion: Although we found a limited number of interactions, this study demonstrated that the impact of the perceived physical environment may differ across levels of parent responsibility.
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Background and aim – This paper studies urban decline, the processin which the built environment suddenly or gradually loses its practical,technical and economic functionality, resulting in it being abandonedby its legitimate occupants and neglected by its owners for an extended period of time. Recent European examples of urban decline fromaround the globe as well as five German examples were studied. This isfollowed by a reflection on the risks for public safety and public healththat these examples show and the possible role of facility managers indiminishing these risks.Methods / Methodology – Data were collected by means of desk research and direct observations.Results – At all locations public safety and public health risks were considerable. Direct observations at five German locations show extensive urban decline.Originality –Identifying safety and health risks in abandoned buildings and connecting these issues to the facility management profession offers a new perspective on dealing with urban decay.Practical or social implications – Abandoned buildings that are easily accessible to the public generate considerable risks for public safety and health. This paper calls for a debate about how to deal with these risks. Part of the debate should be whether or not such situations should be allowed to continue.Moreover, this paper suggests a prominent role for the facility management profession in order to deal with these safety and health issues.Type of paper – Research paper.
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Purpose – As hospitals are now being designed with an increasing number of single rooms or cubicles, the individual preference of patients with respect to social contact is of great interest. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the experience of patients in an outpatient infusion center.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 29 semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and analyzed by using direct content analysis.Findings – Findings showed that patients perceived a lack of acoustic privacy and therefore tried to emotionally isolate themselves or withheld information from staff. In addition, patients complained about the sounds of infusion pumps, but they were neutral about the interior features. Patients who preferred non-talking desired enclosed private rooms and perceived negative distraction because ofspatial crowding. In contrast, patients who preferred talking, or had no preference, desired shared rooms and perceived positive distraction because of spatial crowding.Research limitations/implications – In conclusion, results showed a relation between physical aspects (i.e. physical enclosure) and the social environment.Practical implications – The findings allow facility managers to better understand the patients’ experiences in an outpatient infusion facility and to make better-informed decisions. Patients with different preferences desired different physical aspects. Therefore, nursing staff of outpatient infusion centers should assess the preferences of patients. Moreover, architects should integrate different typesof treatment places (i.e. enclosed private rooms and shared rooms) in new outpatient infusion centers to fulfill different preferences and patients should have the opportunity to discuss issues in private with nursing staff.Originality/value – This study emphasizes the importance of a mix of treatment rooms, while new hospital designs mainly include single rooms or cubicles.
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Quality of life serves a reference against which you can measure the various domains of your own life or that of other individuals, and that can change over time. This definition of the World Health Organization encompasses many elements of daily living, including features of the individual and the environment around us, which can either be the social environment, the built environment, or other environmental aspects. This is one of the rationales for the special issue on “Quality of Life: The Interplay between Human Behaviour, Technology and the Environment”. This special issue is a joint project by the Centre of Expertise Health Innovation of the Hague University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. The main focus of this Special Issue is how optimising the interplay between people, the environment, and technology can enhance people’s quality of life. The focus of the contributions in this special issue is on the person or end‐user and his or her environment, both the physical, social, and digital environment, and on the interaction between (1) people, (2) health, care, and systems, and (3) technology. Recent advances in technology offer a wide range of solutions that support a healthy lifestyle, good quality of life, and effective and efficient healthcare processes, for a large number of end‐users, both patients/clients from minus 9 months until 100+ years of age, as well as practitioners/physicians. The design of new services and products is at the roots of serving the quality of life of people. Original article at MDPI; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16245106 (Editorial of Special Issue with the same title: "Quality of Life: The Interplay between Human Behaviour, Technology and the Environment")
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Background and aim – The aim of this paper is present how applicationof the innovative Indoor Comfort Index (ICI) method reveal the actualindoor environmental quality (IEQ) and the perceived IEQ and itsinfluence on office workers productivity. Application of this tool in a preand post-test after an office refurbishment, will reveal the effectivenessof this intervention. The development and application of this tool,emerged from education and research in facility management, led to aspin-off consultancy firm Vital Workplace.Methods – Actual measurements of the IEQ conditions, combined with users’ perceptions of the IEQ,before and after an office refurbishment, reveals the effectiveness of a refurbishment by analysing thedifferences between the pre and post-test with multiple statistical analyses.Results – Regarding the IEQ, the ICI reveals not only the actual performance of an office building, alsoif improved conditions contribute to improved comfort of office workers. In addition, the possibleinfluence of the IEQ on office workers productivity is revealed. This allows facility managers to determineand improve the alignment of environment quality with workers’ activities and performance.Originality – The tool combines actual and perceived environmental quality at office buildings.Practical or social implications – Education and research can be used to create spin-offs in facilitymanagement. The developed tool can be used to diagnose the current state of the office, a basis fordiscussion on related improvements, and by doing so, for a cost-benefit analyses of design interventionsat organizations. Showing if design impact on users outweigh the costs of real estate, refurbishment,and changes in operations.Type of paper – Research paper.
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Abstract: Background For patients, seclusion during psychiatric treatment is often a traumatic experience. To prevent such experiences, adjustments in the design of seclusion rooms have been recommended. Methods As there have been no empirical studies on the matter, we used a quasi-experimental design to compare the experiences in seclusion of two groups of patients: 26 who had been secluded in a room designed according to the principles of healing environment, a so called ‘Enriched Environment Seclusion room’ (EES), and 27 who had been secluded in a regular seclusion (RS) room. The enrichment included audio-visual facilities, a fixed toilet, a couch and a self-service system to adjust light, colour, blinds and temperature according to the patient’s preferences. Insight into their experiences was obtained using the Patient View-of-Seclusion Questionnaire, which comprises nine statements on seclusion, supplemented with open-ended questions. Results The responses regarding seclusion experiences between the two groups did not differ significantly (U = 280.00, p = .21, r = -.17). Although those who had been secluded in the specially designed room had greatly appreciated the opportunities for distraction, and those who had been secluded in a regular seclusion room expressed the need for more distracting activities during seclusion, both groups described seclusion as a dreadful experience. If seclusion cannot be avoided, patients recommend facilities for distraction (such as those provided in an enriched environment seclusion room) to be available. Conclusion Whatever the physical environment and facilities of a seclusion room, we may thus conclude that seclusion is a burdensome experience.
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Long-term care facilities in the Netherlands try to implement new design approaches to enrich their environments and to cope with the changes and innovations in the Dutch healthcare sector. An enriched environment supports both quality of life of people with frail health and the well-being of the healthcare professionals who take care of them. Despite the increased attention devoted to built environments in relation to health, a gap in knowledge remains how to implement new design approaches. The aim of this study is to present a structural approach for a decision-making process to help to create enriched small-scale care facilities for older people with a frail health condition. A case study was conducted to understand how the structural approach contributes to implementing design features of an enriched environment. The structural approach identifies the key factors (such as shared language, collective understanding and involvement of stakeholders) that should be considered when developing such facilities and describes the critical steps for decision-makers for such environment. This case study provides a rich source of information from actual experiences for a better understanding of steering mechanisms for decision-making by the management of small-scale care facilities.
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In recent years, the effects of the physical environment on the healing process and well-being have proved to be increasingly relevant for patients and their families (PF) as well as for healthcare staff. The discussions focus on traditional and institutionally designed healthcare facilities (HCF) relative to the actual well-being of patients as an indicator of their health and recovery. This review investigates and structures the scientific research on an evidence-based healthcare design for PF and staff outcomes. Evidence-based design has become the theoretical concept for what are called healing environments. The results show the effects on PF and staff from the perspective of various aspects and dimensions of the physical environmental factors of HFC. A total of 798 papers were identified that fitted the inclusion criteria for this study. Of these, 65 articles were selected for review: fewer than 50% of these papers were classified with a high level of evidence, and 86% were included in the group of PF outcomes. This study demonstrates that evidence of staff outcomes is scarce and insufficiently substantiated. With the development of a more customer-oriented management approach to HCF, the implications of this review are relevant to the design and construction of HCF. Some design features to consider in future design and construction of HCF are single-patient rooms, identical rooms, and lighting. For future research, the main challenge will be to explore and specify staff needs and to integrate those needs into the built environment of HCF.
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An activity-friendly environment may increase physical activity (PA) levels and decrease sedentary behavior (SB). This study investigated associations between socio-demographic characteristics, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), perceived environment and objectively measured PA outcomes. Socio-demographic characteristics were assessed using a questionnaire and HRQoL was measured using the EQ-5D. The Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) was used to assess the perceived environment. SB, light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were measured using the Actigraph GT3X+. Data from 622 Dutch adults were used in multivariate linear regression analyses to investigate associations between NEWS-A and PA outcomes. Analyses were controlled for socio-demographic characteristics and HRQoL. The presence of attractive buildings was associated with less SB ( = ?0.086, p < 0.01) and more MVPA ( = 0.118, p < 0.01). Presence of destinations within walking distance was also positively associated with MVPA ( = 0.106, p < 0.01). Less crime was associated with less MVPA ( = 0.092, p < 0.05). Interactions between personal and environmental characteristics showed that the absence of PA-hindering characteristics (e.g., heavy traffic) was associated with less SB and more MVPA, but only for residents with problems regarding pain and usual activities. The presence of PA-facilitating characteristics (e.g., aesthetics and destinations) was associated with less SB, more LPA and more MVPA but only for the more advantaged people in society. Results suggest that to reduce health inequalities, it would be more helpful to remove barriers rather than introduce PA facilitating characteristics.
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Purpose:The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) recommends researchers to investigate a widevariety of behavioural and health outcomes. However, researchers often investigate only a part of occupationalhealth (OH) in relation to light. A literature study (2002–2017) regarding the relationship between office lightingconditions and OH was performed to identify gaps and methodological issues.Method:The OH outcomes investigated in this paper were grouped according to the International Classificationof Diseases and analysed per category: physical and physiological health, mental health, eye health, sleep param-eters and visual comfort.Results:Findings from the literature study (20 eligible papers) showed that all OH aspects were mostly but notexclusively measured subjectively. Furthermore, most studies investigated only a fraction of office lighting par-ameters and OH aspects.Conclusions:It seems that Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) and illuminance mainly correlate with OH.However, this may also be explained by gaps and methodological issues in studies described in eligible papers.Based on the literature study, an overview was composed elucidating gaps and methodological issues of officelighting and OH studies. It can be used to design and target the purpose of light and health research.
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