Creating a dementia-friendly environment through the use of outdoor natural landscape design intervention in long-term care facilities: A narrative review

Abstract

There is an increasing volume of literature on the positive effects of outdoor natural landscapes on health and well-being. However, to date, there is a paucity of research on the effect of outdoor natural landscapes designed for people with dementia living in long-term care (LTC) facilities, in particular, those which have incorporated the characteristics of a dementia-friendly environment (DFE). This narrative literature review synthesizes current knowledge on the effect of outdoor natural landscape design, which is aligned with the characteristics of a DFE, to improve agitation, apathy and engagement of people with dementia living in LTC facilities. The reviewed studies predominantly support the positive effects of outdoor natural landscapes on agitation, apathy and engagement of people with dementia. However, there are concerns about the methodological approaches, principles incorporated in the applied outdoor natural landscapes' designs, and the environmental assessment. Further rigorous research is required to understand the impact of the outdoor natural landscapes, with the application of DFE characteristics in the design, on agitation, apathy and engagement of people with dementia living in LTC facilities.

The associations between social, built and geophysical environment and age-specific dementia mortality among older adults in a high-density Asian city

“…The results of greenness can be interpreted in two ways. First, urban greenness has been documented to be a protective factor against dementia and related mental health diseases (Motealleh et al, 2019). For example, Paul et al (2020) found that greenness could be negatively associated with dementia.…”

Moving Toward an Agenda on Ocean Health and Human Health in Europe

“…Analyses of population-based surveys such as the United Kingdom Census suggest the closer people live to the coast, the more likely they were to self-report good health, especially among more socio-economically deprived communities (Wheeler et al, 2012(Wheeler et al, , 2015. Such analyses are limited, however, in that they use area aggregates of both exposure and outcomes and are open to the critique of "ecological fallacy, " i.e., the mistake of making assumptions about individuals from group-based data.…”

“…Marine and coastal ecosystems are part of a wider network of aquatic environments, including freshwater systems, which are generically referred to as "blue spaces" (White et al, 2010;Gascón et al, 2017). Despite the acknowledged interactions between healthy blue spaces and human health and well-being (Völker and Kistemann, 2011;Wheeler et al, 2012;Nutsford et al, 2016;Bullock et al, 2018), systematic research on this topic is relatively recent, and important knowledge gaps have been identified (Grellier et al, 2017;Fleming et al, 2019). These research gaps imply a weaker understanding of how marine blue spaces produce cultural and other relevant ecosystem services, how these are used, and their implications for human health and well-being.…”

Environmental and Psychosocial Interventions in Age-Friendly Communities and Active Ageing: A Systematic Review

“…For specific groups of older people, the methodology of age-friendly environments has also been subject to literature reviews focusing on the population with dementia living in long-term care facilities, to assess the effectiveness of the design of open and natural environments in improving the symptoms of dementia [27], and on older immigrants in community dwellings in terms of the factors that influence social inclusion [28].…”