Investigating the Effects of Physical Factors on Promoting the Objective Dimension of Quality of Life for the Physical Environments of the Elderly (Case Study:Elderly Care Centers of Isfahan, Iran)

Care centers for older people are increasingly becoming important than ever before due to the growing rates of the elderly population and transforming familial functions with respect to older people care and also focus on architecture debates that involve comfort and convenience for the elderly.In this connection,the present study aimed to examine the promotion of the objective dimension of quality of life in the physical environment of the elderly and its effects on their psychological health and physical needs.The present study was performed in two combined general sections.In the first section,the elderly were interviewed and theoretical studies were performed using qualitative and descriptive-analytical methods,while theme analysis was carried out to extract physical components.In the second section, quantitative methods and survey analyses(using 88 questionnaires)were used to investigate the views of the elderly about high-quality internal space features at care centers.The features were analyzed by confirmatory factor analyses and SPSS software,as well Student rsquo;s T Test.Findings indicated that based on the study rsquo;s methodology,the objective dimension of quality of life in the physical environments of the elderly was dependent on six main themes of permeability,environmental diversity,flexibility,visual proportions,sense of belonging,and safety and security.According to the themes obtained from the quantitative and qualitative results,it is critical to focus on the effects of physical factors on promoting the objective dimension of quality of life by facilitating movement in the environment,increasing the relationship between the environment and the surrounding,visual and social physical elements,changing spatial structures,etc.to meet the needs of the elderly and satisfy their safety standards.