Developing structural facilities management–quality of life models for the elderly in the common areas of public and subsidized housings

Abstract

Aging populations are becoming an universal problem. A huge number of elderly people have been accommodated in public and subsidized (P&S) housings across the world. To accomplish various daily life activities, the elderly often need to rely on diverse facilities and facilities management (FM) in their living environment, which normally consists of indoor (i.e., individual unit flats) and common areas (e.g., lifts and lobbies). However, it still largely remains unknown how the FM of the common areas of P&S housings affects the quality of life (QoL) of the elderly. Hence, this study aimed to develop an integrated FM–QoL model for the elderly in regard to common areas of P&S housings.A questionnaire survey was administered among 365 elderly people and the collected data were subjected to a series of statistical analyses, including a reliability test, multiple regression analysis, and structural equation model. The integrated model was developed based on the congruence of the results of all statistical analyses. It shows that: 1) distance in the common areas positively affected the physical and social QoL of elderly people in P&S housings and sufficient space led to improvements in physical, psychological, and environmental QoL; 2) for building services factors, appropriate ventilation improved the social QoL of the elderly, satisfaction with lifts positively predicted the psychological and environmental QoL of the elderly, and proper security in common areas promoted better psychological and social QoL in the elderly; 3) only hygiene, as supporting facilities factor in the common areas of P&S housings, positively predicted the environmental QoL. Practical recommendations were made based on these results, including the allocation of common areas in the center of and the avoidance of long corridors in P&S housings. The current study established an integrated FM–QoL model for elderly people in the common areas of P&S housings, which can be used by policy makers, designers/facilities managers, and academics to holistically improve FM for better QoL for elderly people.