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Validation of the Environmental Audit Tool in both purpose‐built and non‐purpose‐built dementia care settings
Author(s) -
Smith Ronald,
Fleming Richard,
Chenoweth Lynn,
Jeon YunHee,
SteinParbury Jane,
Brodaty Henry
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2011.00559.x
Subject(s) - wilcoxon signed rank test , audit , dementia , built environment , descriptive statistics , test (biology) , medicine , quality (philosophy) , level design , unit (ring theory) , applied psychology , psychology , gerontology , computer science , engineering , business , statistics , disease , philosophy , mathematics , mann–whitney u test , pathology , biology , paleontology , civil engineering , accounting , epistemology , game design , mathematics education , human–computer interaction
Aim: To provide further validation of the Environmental Audit Tool (EAT) by describing data on scores from 56 facilities and comparing the scores of facilities with a purpose‐built dementia environment with those with non‐purpose‐built designs. Methods: Fifty‐six facilities were assessed with the EAT. EAT scores for 24 purpose‐built environments were compared with 32 non‐purpose‐built environments using a Wilcoxon rank‐sum test. Results: Descriptive data on EAT scores are presented across all facilities. Facilities scored well on safety/security, familiarity, highlighting useful stimuli and privacy. Purpose‐built unit scores were significantly higher than those for non‐purpose‐built environments for nine of 10 subscales of the EAT and the overall EAT score. Conclusion: The EAT can assess the quality of homelike environments in residential aged care facilities for people with dementia, differentiate between the quality of design in various types of facilities and provide an evidence basis for devising improvements.