The Dia Foundation for Research on Ageing Societies Research on Housing Environments for Older People

RESEARCH

Development and Empirical Research of Housing Accessibility Assessment for Older People

“Housing accessibility” is the extent to which design features facilitate or hinder an individual from approaching, entering, or using its dwelling.
Securing accessibility is crucial for older people to live as independently as possible while also avoiding hazards in their everyday lives. However, in Japan, assessment tools for housing accessibility for the older people have not been well established.
The purpose of this study is to translate the assessment tools of housing accessibility developed in Sweden and assess housing for the older people in Japan. This research has been conducted as international collaborative research with researchers from the CASE (Centre for Ageing and Supportive Environments) at Lund University since 2017.

TOP > Development and Empirical Research of Housing Accessibility Assessment for Older People

Feasibility of Housing Accessibility Assessment Tool

An assessment tool of housing accessibility that is developed in Sweden, known as the Housing Enabler, was based on a conceptual model that housing accessibility problems arise from the combination of housing environment burdens and functional competence. We are performing validity, reliability, and process evaluations as a feasibility verification after translating this assessment tool and modifying it to meet Japanese housing standards.

Research Results

Assessing Housing Accessibility Issues for Older Adults in Japan, an Expert Panel Approach to Cross-cultural Adaptation and Content Validity of the Japanese Housing Enabler

As part of the process of developing the housing accessibility assessment for the older people, we translated it, adjusted it to Japanese housing standards, and surveyed an expert panel consisting of occupational therapists, care managers, and architects to verify its content validity.

Press Release
(in Japanese) Paper Link Article

Housing Assessment Tools Developed or Adapted for Use in East and Southeast Asia, a Scoping Review

A scoping review was performed in order to understand the current situation of development of housing environment assessment tools in East and Southeast Asia. The lack of scientifically examined housing environment accessibility indicators in Asia was thus discovered, indicating the need for indicator development toward evidence building.

Paper Link

Environmental Challenges in the Home for Aging Societies, a Comparison of Sweden and Japan

Despite the fact that Sweden and Japan seem like very distant countries, they both face aging societies. In this study, an international comparative study on housing environment challenges was conducted by utilizing census and public statistics from both countries.

Paper Link

Others

A study for building environment assessment to maximize the older adult’s abilities–Why is it necessary to evaluate accessibility of older adults with care needs in Japan? (in Japanese).
Dia News 99 4-7 October 2019

Research Funding Sources

  • Housing environment maximizing functional ability and subjective well-being of older people using long-term care (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B): Principal Investigator)
  • Development of Japanese housing accessibility assessment tool to maximize functional ability of older people: Classification of ICF and validation study (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists: Principal Investigator)
  • Maximizing functional ability of older people using long-term care: adapting an existing assessment tool to a new context (The 27th Pfizer Health Research Foundation International Collaborative Research Grant)
  • Preliminary study to develop the Housing Enabler assessment tool for housing adaptations in Japan -Comparison between Sweden and Japan-. (Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation in 2017)