Abstract
This study evaluated 26 elderly residents living independently in 4 group homes for their abilities in daily living and analyzed their behaviors of space occupancy and activities of daily living. The aim of the study was to identify the relationships between the physical environments of the group homes and the daily activities of the residents. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1) Most residents in the group home considered bathing and cooking to be the most difficult of their living activities. The residents were categorized into "Independent," "Semi-dependent" and "Dependent" groups, on the basis of their ADL and IADL scores, and individual groups were examined. On ADL scorelt was shown, then, that 65.4% of the residents were was independent in ADL, but there was no any significant difference in IADL between the independent, semi-dependent and dependent groups. In addition, there was a difference in ADL and IADL among the groups. The independent group's residents were shown to be independent in ADL and IADL, whereas the but those of the semi-dependent and dependent groups' residents were lower in IADL than in ADL. 2) When their behaviors of space occupancy were examined, it appeared that the independent group showed a different space sharing pattern among individual residents, with a wide range of behavior of space occupancy. Meanwhile, The semi-dependent group mostly shared a common space with simple activities of daily living while no any service low leisure program was provided. However, the dependent group mainly consisted of residents who had a low level of independence in ADL and IADL, so that their behaviors of space occupancy were entirely negative.
