Keywords: elderly; physiological decline; bathroom system design
The rapid growth of the elderly population has become an important feature of China's population growth in the 21st century, but compared with the absolute number of elderly people is expanding the status quo, the design and development of products specifically for the elderly is still very lacking.
Bathroom systems, as an important part of the design of housing, play an irreplaceable role in people's lives. With the enhancement of the cognition of life, people's requirements for the bathroom system has been gradually improved, in the basic functions at the same time, people want to have a safe, convenient, reliable and comfortable bathroom system. For the elderly, this demand is particularly prominent. Due to the decline of the physiological system or disease distress, the elderly will gradually increase the frequency of using the bathroom system, the safety risks also rise. Currently our mainstream bathroom system design has not been able to fully consider the special needs of the elderly, this paper from the perspective of the physiological decline of the elderly, to explore suitable for the elderly to use the family bathroom system design strategy, to effectively protect the elderly can be safe, convenient and comfortable use of the bathroom system.
I? Bathroom system design overview
Bathroom system is the most private and important part of the design of the housing residence. Bathroom system consists of bathroom space, sanitary facilities, auxiliary and ancillary facilities. Sanitary facilities include bathtubs, showers, sinks, toilets and so on. In China, the bathroom space is usually the smallest activity space in home life, which is mainly due to the influence of our economic level, population size and housing policy. Compared with foreign bathroom system design, China's research on bathroom system is mainly focused on the form, color and material and other appearance design.
Two? Overview of Physiological Decline of the Elderly
According to the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health, people over the age of 60 are defined as the elderly. This definition is mainly named based on the physiological age of the elderly. The so-called physiological age is the age of an individual determined by the physiological state of the individual's cells, tissues, organs, and systems, their physiological functions, and the physiological indicators that respond to these states and functions.
With age, the physical functions of the elderly will decline, mainly including the decline of the perceptual system, the decline of the skeletal-muscular system two aspects. In daily life, this decline is mainly manifested in slow reaction, vision, smell and other perceptual levels of decline, osteoporosis, reduced mobility and so on. These physiological disorders will bring a lot of inconvenience to the elderly in home life, especially in the process of using the bathroom system.
Three? The decline of the elderly perceptual system and the corresponding bathroom system design strategy
Perception refers to the ability to recognize things through the visual, auditory, tactile and other sense organs. The decline of the elderly perceptual system will greatly affect their ability to recognize the things around them. Problems caused by visual and tactile impairments are the first to manifest themselves when using the bathroom system.
(1) Visual decline and the corresponding bathroom system design strategy
Vision is the body's main senses to receive external stimuli, human beings use vision to obtain information, and further in the brain to analyze, decision-making, action. The human body from the visual acquisition of information can account for almost the entire perceptual system to obtain more than 80% of the information. There are many factors that affect visual differences, especially experience and age, and the main age effects include presbyopia, corneal yellowing, increasing adaptation time and decreasing visual acuity. Older people take about three times as long as younger people to adjust to walking from a higher-lit venue to a darker one.
For the elderly visual decline corresponding to the design strategy: (1) bathroom system to light colors. From the point of view of cleanliness and hygiene, bathtubs, sinks, toilets and other semi-permanent use of sanitary equipment, its color should be light. You can consider using white, light pink, light gray, light blue, etc., avoid using the red system and the color of the rich colors. Most of the elderly with age, changes in interests, etc. are likely to dislike strong colors. (2) The lighting of the bathroom system is mainly soft light. Elderly people due to physiological reasons at night will increase the number of toilet. Due to visual deterioration, the elderly adaptability to changes in light is weakened, the night from darkness to bright light of the strong brightness changes, will make it subject to glare stimulation, therefore, in the provision of sufficient light for the elderly lighting at the same time, should try to avoid glare, you can consider the use of brightness can be adjusted lighting appliances.
(2)? Tactile Decline and Corresponding Bathroom System Design Strategies
In James J. Park's work, the tactile senses are categorized into three modalities: tactile perception, pressure perception, and temperature perception, through which the three senses are used to receive the messages conveyed to us by the environment. When an adult reaches the age of 60 or 70, the sensitivity of the palm and fingers will have a phenomenon of decline, the most specific performance is that the tactile response deteriorates, you need more strength to operate the product; finger sensitivity decreases on small objects will have to recognize the existence of doubt; temperature sensation deteriorates, it is not easy to grasp the hot and cold, easy to cause scalding and so on.
Therefore, in the design of the bathroom system, the corresponding design strategy for the decline of the sense of touch is: (1) Increase the tactile texture of the surface of the grips or objects. When the elderly in and out of the bathtub need to lift their legs, in order to avoid the elderly due to unsteady center of gravity and fall, the bottom of the bathtub should be made non-slip treatment, such as the use of uneven or friction of the material. (2) Adopt a thermostatic faucet that is easy to operate. Elderly people have a reduced ability to perceive temperature and are slow to respond to changes in external temperature. In order to prevent the shower water temperature is too hot, too cool, especially to avoid scalding accidents, the elderly should be in the water before the release of water according to their own needs to adjust the water temperature and volume, the use of easy to operate handle faucet or thermostatic faucet at this time is particularly important.
Four? The decline of the elderly skeletal and muscular system and the corresponding bathroom system design strategy
With age, the elderly bones and muscles continue to decline, osteoporosis and easy to fracture, muscle elasticity, endurance and other atrophy, reduced physical activity. Declining bones and joints and sense of balance can have an impact on the use of bathroom systems by the elderly.
(1) Bones and joints
The bone and joint system changes with age, and may cause diseases mainly osteoporosis and arthritis. Osteoporosis is a common disease for the elderly, causing shorter height, hunchback, and fractures. Arthritis is a degenerative change, and degenerative arthritis, which is formed in aging joints, can occur in joints throughout the body, with the knee joint being the most serious. Ichiro Takasugi of Kyushu Island University Hospital in Japan specializes in investigating these problems, and the final data show that in 1 year, 10% to 20% of the elderly will fall more than once, of which 5% to 10% will suffer a fracture.
The design strategy for the bathroom system corresponding to the decline of bones and joints of the elderly is: (1) Ergonomics. Older people's height than 20 years young when shrinking 10% to 20%, so the toilet should be slightly higher than normal to reduce the burden on the legs of the elderly squatting, but also can use a simple lift toilet, which to a large extent can ease the pressure on the bones of the elderly. (2) Anti-slip. The floor of the bathroom system is relatively wet and slippery, should be placed at the entrance and exit of the bathroom space, the outside of the shower room and the sink below the non-slip mats should be placed, try to avoid the elderly fall.
(2) Sense of Balance
Sense of balance refers to the perception and regulation of body posture, which is an important function to effectively achieve limb activity without falling. Age affects the sense of balance. Elderly people in their 60s are prone to falls, which are caused by the difficulty of balancing the body, which in turn leads to a loss of a sense of security in the elderly.
For the decline in sense of balance corresponding to the design of the bathroom system strategy: (1) should be installed in the appropriate location of the handrail. Handrail material is best to use poor thermal conductivity of waterproof wood is good, the surface should be with a certain coefficient of friction, the shape is easy for the elderly to grasp, so that it is convenient for the elderly to walk. Elderly people can according to their own needs in the toilet next to the bath tub or shower around the sink before the installation of these three areas of safety handrails. (2) Bathroom facilities in the form of arc-based. In the bathroom system, the human body is usually in the uncovered state, the body is easy to touch the corner of the object resulting in injury, so the bathtub, bathtub, washbasin and other corners are best made into a rounded shape. Such a shape to prevent the elderly in the force or body imbalance when the loss of sufficient support.
V? Conclusion
Currently the elderly home bathroom system design is increasingly becoming a focus of attention, strengthen the research to effectively solve the practical problems of the elderly in the home life, to improve the ability of the elderly to take care of themselves is of great significance. In this paper, from the perspective of physiological decline of the elderly, combined with the characteristics of the perceptual system, musculoskeletal system decline, and put forward the corresponding solution strategy. It is hoped that through the research in this paper, design research can make its due contribution in the field of solving social aging problems.
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Author Introduction: Wei Juanjuan; Gender: Female; Date of Birth: October 1986; Place of Origin: Datong, Shanxi; Education: Postgraduate; Title: None; Research Direction: Light Industrial Products.