Abstract

The public areas of the hospital built environment have hardly been investigated for their age-friendliness. This exploratory, multidisciplinary pilot study investigates the relationship between the physical environment and design of hospital spaces and older people's outpatient experience. Sixteen participants were recruited from a geriatric Outpatient Clinic at a metropolitan public hospital in Australia. Participants were engaged in a concurrent mixed-method approach, comprising a comprehensive geriatric survey, walking observation, semi-structured interview and an independent architectural audit. Several elements arising from the hospital environment were identified as facilitators and barriers for its utilization and intrinsically related to participants' physical capacity. Age-friendly hospital design needs to consider strategies to remove barriers for older adults of different capacities, thus promoting healthy aging.

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