Appropriate residential site environments for the elderly in Baan Pong Nuea sub-district municipality of Hang Dong district in Chiang Mai province

Hongthong, Alisa (2023). Appropriate residential site environments for the elderly in Baan Pong Nuea sub-district municipality of Hang Dong district in Chiang Mai province. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Old age is a critical stage of life, in which a person’s physical environment of the residential site plays an important role. However, although the most important characteristics of a suitable environment for the elderly is well described, the perceptions of older people within residential site environmental settings and their features have yet to be studied in-depth in Asian countries within rural settings.

As critical points of at least two inter-related gaps, this study addresses these gaps by widening the focus on residential sites in a rural Asian context, with a mixed-methodology based on the extent of Person-Environment (P–E) fit. Thus, the principal research aims of this project are to understand how older adults perceive, utilise and relate to their residential site environments in a rural context as evaluated by older residents themselves in a case study of a village in northern Thailand.

This study considers three research questions concerning the residential site environments in the rural Asian context - their concepts as the main considerations of the characteristics, the contribution to the outdoor usages and satisfaction, and the perceptions and evaluations among older people. The evidence presented in the study suggests that residential sites’ environmental characteristics are essential to creating appropriate relationships between elders and their environments in a rural context and affect elders’ perception, outdoor usage, and environmental satisfaction.

This study contributes to the developed line of analysis of the residential site environments for ageing in a rural Asian context to broaden what has been set in that existing body of knowledge relating to living environments for older people. This research could lead to residential and rural development policy interventions and has implications for practice. The findings from this study allow elders or related organisations to promote, apply and create the appropriate and desirable residential environments in confronting an ageing society.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):