The role of outdoor microclimatic features at long-term care facilities in advancing the health of its residents: An integrative review and future strategies

Residential Environments for Older Persons: A Comprehensive Literature Review (2005-2022)

BACKGROUND

Independent noninstitutional and institutional residential long-term care environments for older persons have been the subject of significant empirical and qualitative research in the 2005-2022 period. A comprehensive review of this literature is reported, summarizing recent advancements in this rapidly expanding body of knowledge.

PURPOSE AND AIM

This comprehensive review conceptually structures the recent literature on environment and aging to provide conceptual clarity and identify current and future trends.

METHOD AND RESULT

Each source reviewed was classified as one of the five types-opinion piece/essay, cross-sectional empirical investigation, nonrandomized comparative investigation, randomized study, and policy review essay-within eight content categories: community-based aging in place; residentialism; nature, landscape, and biophilia; dementia special care units; voluntary/involuntary relocation; infection control/COVID-19, safety/environmental stress; ecological and cost-effective best practices; and recent design trends and prognostications.

CONCLUSIONS

Among the findings embodied in the 204 literature sources reviewed, all-private room long-term care residential units are generally safer and provide greater privacy and personal autonomy to residents, the deleterious impacts of involuntary relocation continue, family engagement in policy making and daily routines has increased, multigenerational independent living alternatives are increasing, the therapeutic role of nature and landscape is increasingly well-documented, ecological sustainability has increased in priority, and infection control measures are of high priority in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Discussion of the results of this comprehensive review sets the stage for further research and design advancements on this subject in light of the rapid aging of societies around the globe.

Pedestrians' behavior based on outdoor thermal comfort and micro-scale thermal environments, Austin, TX

Cities have faced rapid urbanization, which has changed the impact of the micro-thermal environment on residents' thermal comfort level. Therefore, planners need to understand the city's physical environment so they can identify and ameliorate the effects of the changing in micro-thermal environment. Researchers also need to identify and understand pedestrians' thermal comfort level in street canyons to determine which urban physical factors planners need to improve. This study aimed to observe how thermal comfort affects pedestrian behavior in micro-thermal environments and to determine which urban geometry factors influence pedestrians' thermal comfort. This study collected data in downtown Austin, TX using a mobile weather station, and analyzed the microclimate conditions experienced by pedestrians. A camera mounted on the weather station also allowed us to observe pedestrian behavior patterns. The results revealed that pedestrians tended to choose walking, sitting, and standing locations with high thermal comfort levels such as in the shade on the sidewalk. There was also some correlation between thermal comfort levels and pedestrian behavior patterns. The sky view factor (SVF) and tree canopy coverage ratio (TCR) were also correlated with pedestrians' thermal comfort. This study highlights the need for future research to develop a data collection method for efficient microscopic thermal environment research and a thermal environment estimation and analysis approach from a three-dimensional perspective.

Evaluating the 35°C wet-bulb temperature adaptability threshold for young, healthy subjects (PSU HEAT Project)

A wet-bulb temperature of 35°C has been theorized to be the limit to human adaptability to extreme heat, a growing concern in the face of continued and predicted accelerated climate change. Although this theorized threshold is based in physiological principles, it has not been tested using empirical data. This study examined the critical wet-bulb temperature (T_wb,crit) at which heat stress becomes uncompensable in young, healthy adults performing tasks at modest metabolic rates mimicking basic activities of daily life. Across six experimentally determined environmental limits, no subject's T_wb,crit reached the 35°C limit and all means were significantly lower than the theoretical 35°C threshold. Mean T_wb,crit values were relatively constant across 36°C -40°C humid environments and averaged 30.55 ± 0.98°C but progressively decreased (higher deviation from 35°C) in hotter, dry ambient environments. T_wb,crit was significantly associated with mean skin temperature (and a faster warming rate of the skin) due to larger increases in dry heat gain in the hot-dry environments. As sweat rates did not significantly differ among experimental environments, evaporative cooling was outpaced by dry heat gain in hot-dry conditions, causing larger deviations from the theoretical 35°C adaptability threshold. In summary, a wet-bulb temperature threshold cannot be applied to human adaptability across all climatic conditions and where appropriate (high humidity), that threshold is well below 35°C.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study is the first to use empirical physiological observations to examine the well-publicized theoretical 35°C wet-bulb temperature limit for human to extreme environments. We find that uncompensable heat stress in humid environments occurs in young, healthy adults at wet-bulb temperatures significantly lower than 35°C. In addition, uncompensable heat stress occurs at widely different wet-bulb temperatures as a function of ambient vapor pressure.