Dementia-Friendly Architecture: Environments That Facilitate Wayfinding in Nursing Homes

Spatial disorientation is a prime reason for institutionalization. The autonomy of the residents and their quality of life, however, is strongly linked with their ability to reach certain places within their nursing home. The physical environment has a great potential for supporting a resident's wayfinding abilities. For this study, data were collected from 30 German nursing homes. Skilled nurses rated the resident's ability to perform 5 wayfinding tasks. The architectural characteristics of the homes were analyzed and their impact on the resulting scores was tested for statistical significance using the Mann-Whitney U test (P < .05). Results confirm that people with advancing dementia are increasingly dependent on a compensating environment. The significant factors include a small number of residents per living area, the straight layout of the circulation system without any changes in direction, and the provision of only 1 living/dining room. These and additional results were transformed into architectural guidelines.