Design of Living Environments for Nursing Home Residents Recruiting Attendance at Activities

Abstract

Nursing home residents are often described as an unoccupied and disengaged population that exhibits low rates of motor behavior and low rates of social interaction; it is important to disrupt this pattern of inactivity and to develop strategies for assuring residents' active engagement with the environment. The present study assessed the effectiveness of several different techniques for recruiting attendance at activities. The data demonstrate that announcements were effective in prompting high levels of attendance, and that failure to announce activities resulted in more than 50 percent reductions in attendance. Such experimental analyses of the effects of environmental variables upon patient behavior can ultimately provide program planners with a data-based technology for assuring older adults' involvement in therapeutic activities.