Lighting Design for Elderly Living in Residential Care Facilities

Abstract

Associated with aging, elderly suffer from various visual impairments that require specialized illumination conditions. Elderly should be supported by a well-balanced visual environment in residential care facilities to ensure active living and visual comfort. Although literature focused on age related eye diseases, significance of illumination to elderly and satisfaction level evaluations are detailed, translations to lighting design are mostly limited to illuminance-related guidelines. The aim of this study is to identify lighting design cues that enable visual comfort conditions through a systematic literature review. Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar are searched from January 2000 to February 2022 and finally 11 papers that meet inclusive criteria are included. This study highlights illumination related problems of elderly and proposes spatial design recommendations to overcome visual discomforts. The reviewed papers’ results have been presented under categories as daylighting, colour rendering index, correlated colour temperature, night illumination, illumination distribution, illumination control, illumination layout, glare, adaptation, and interior design. Presented design recommendations can be applied to existing or future residential care facilities to reduce various visual challenges that elderly have been experiencing.