Environmental Features Affecting the Quality of Life among Elderly Residents in Nursing Homes, Case Study: Shemiranat Area in Tehran Province

The life style in Iran has always been a traditional one, in which the elderly are seen as white beard. But with change of lifestyle in the modern era, this role is being destroyed and lost so that being elderly is no longer seen as a valid period of life. This has caused reduced life expectancy among the elderly, especially those living in the nursing homes. As a result, we observe the lack of attention to their emotional needs, which has led to increased rate of deaths caused by diseases as well as increased cost and crisis for the social system. Therefore, it is suggested that by further research and design of appropriate settlements, which meet both the physical needs as well as the sense of usefulness among the elderly, we may reach to the possibility of reviving the position of aged people in Iran from a different point of view and find the approach to the appropriate concept of settlement. The purpose of this study was to identify influential factors on increasing the life quality of the elderly as well as to design suitable type of housing for them. In this research, in order to identify influential factors on increasing the life quality of aged people in nursing homes of private sector of Shemiranat area in Tehran city, we have used questionnaires, interviews and field observations. Then, the collected data were analyzed and new plans were proposed to design housing for the elderly with the approach of increasing life quality among its residents. The research method used in this study is exploratory factor analysis. To analyze data, SPSS21 was used. The results showed that among the five identified factors relating to the satisfaction of residents of environment, i.e. learn ability, sociality, convenience, the ability to walk and physical exercise, similarity of nursing home to the previous home of the elderly, the factor of the ability to walk and exercise had the greatest impact on satisfaction and life expectancy among the elderly.